THE DEPORTATION OF WOMEN 
AND GIRLS FROM LILLE 



TRANSLATED TEXTUALLY FROM THE NOTE ADDRESSED BY THE FRENCH 
GOVERNMENT TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF NEUTRAL POWERS ON THE 
CONDUCT OF THE GERMAN AUTHORITIES TOWARDS THE POPULATION 
OF THE FRENCH DEPARTMENTS IN THE OCCUPATION OF THE ENEMY. 



WITH EXTRACTS FROM OTHER DOCUMENTS, ANNEXED TO THE NOTE RELAT- 
ING TO GERMAN BREACHES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW DURING 1914, 1915, 1916. 




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pi<i;si;nti:o ijy I C( \ i^ 



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THE DEPORTATION 
OF WOMEN AND ^ 
GIRLS FROM LILLE. 



Translated textually from the Note ad= 
dressed by the French Government to 
the Governments of Neutral Powers on 
the conduct of the German Authorities 
to-wards the population of the French 
Departments in the occupation of the 
enemy. 



WITH 



EXTRACTS FROM OTHER DOCUMENTS, 
ANNEXED TO THE NOTE, RELATING 
TO GERMAN BREACHES OF INTER- 
NATIONAL LAW DURING 1914, 1915, 1916. 



GEORGE Ha DORAN COMPANY. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Circular covering the Note to the Diplomatic Agents 
of France ...... q 

Note of the Government of the French Eepublic ... 4 

Annexes : — 

A. Documents relating to the deportation and disper- 
sion of women, girls and men from Lille, 
Roubaix, Tourcoing (April, 1916) 9 

I. German Documents : — 

Proclamation of the Military Commandant at 
Lille 10 

Proclamation of the " Etappen-Komman- 
dantur " ... ... ... _. _, iq 

II. French Documents : — 

Protests by the French Government 11 

Reply of the German Government 14 

Reply of the French Government 14 

Various Documents : — 

Protest^ by the Mayor and the Bishop of 
Lille ... ... ... ... ... 15 

Various Letters ... ... ... ... 16 

B. Depositions concerning forced labour in the 

Departments in German occupation 35 

C. Official French and German Documents concerning 

forced labour ... ... ... ... ... 75 



(9288r.) A 2 



THE DEPORTATION of WOMEN AND GIRLS 

FROM LILLE. 



Letter enclosing the Note to the Powers. 



The President of the Council and Minis^r of Foreign Affairs to the 
Diplomatic Representatives of the French Republic, Paris, 2bth 
July, 1916. 

I have requested you to call the attention of the government to which 
you are accredited to the treatment to which the population of Lille, 
Roubaix, and Tourcoing- have been subjected by the German authorities 
(Ann. 5). I informed you that I was in receipt of a number of com- 
munications on this subject. 

In view of the facts which have been revealed to it, the French 
Government cannot think it sufficient to cite the 3rd Article of the Con- 
vention of the Hague relating to the laws and customs of land warfare, 
or to anticipate the indemnity for which Germany will be held respon- 
sible on the score of the breaches of the Regulations committed by persons 
belonging to her armed forces; the Government would feel itself guilty 
of a grave failure of duty if it did not endeavour to bring some remedial 
measures to bear on these sufferings. 

Until the fortune of war enables us to reconquer the occupied districts, 
the only means of furthering this effort is to make an urgent appeal, 
in the name of justice and of humanity, to the neutral Powers and to 
the public opinion of all nations. 

I therefore beg you to communicate the annexed Note to the Govern- 
ment to which you are accredited, and to call its most serious attention 
'to the docTiment. 

This Note embodies the protest of the French Government against the 
facts which it thereby brings to the knowledge of the civilised world; 
the Note is supported by much documentary evidence which is annexed 
to it. 

If our compatriots in enemy countries have a means of defence m the 
devoted zeal of the Governments charged with the protection of French 
interests, the same is not the case with our fellow-citizens in the territory 
for the administration of which Germany is temporarily responsible. 

In the name of military necessities — which it has not allowed to stand 
in the way of certain publicists being allowed access to its front — the 
German Government has, up to the present, refused to allow representa- 
tives of neutral Powers to be sent to the invaded Departments. Without 
doubt it fears the impression which would be produced abroad by a 
knowledge of the situation to which the unhappy resident population is 
reduced. Time has been necessary to collect and arrange the evidence 
establishing the guilt of the German authorities for the events of Holy 
Week, 1916. To these documents we add all the others which attest the 
varioiis abuses to which our compatriots of the occupied districts have 
been subjected since the beginning of the war. 

The German Government has paid no attention to the successive sug- 
gestion . which have been made to it with a view to putting an end tc 



a state of affairs wliicli violates all international engagements, and thus 
leaves the population of these districts under the constant menace of 
new severities. All our protests having- proved idle, we lay to-day our 
proofs before the neutral Powers, confident of the judgment which the 
conscience of the world will pronounce upon the facts. 

Naturally, it has been impossible for the French Government itself 
to check every detail of the information contained in the documentary 
evidence laid before it, inasmuch as it relates to matters which occurred 
in territory still occupied by the enemy. But the evidence collected 
comes from so many sources, is so much to the same effect, and is given 
by persons of such great respectability, character, and trustworthiness, 
that it will carry a conviction of its general truth. The mistakes, if any, 
will not invalidate the general conclusion ; they can be of only secondary 
importance. 

It remains to observe that if the German Government's intention is to 
impugn our information, the course incumbent upon it is to agree to an 
impartial investigation, and, in pursuance of this object, to authorise 
the neutral Powers to institute an enquiry, especially upon the events 
which occurred at Lille, Eoubaix, Tourcoing, and the adjacent com- 
munes between the 22nd and the 29th April, 1916. A refusal on its part 
would involve an acknowledgment of the truth of the facts alleged. 

(Signed) A. BRIAND. 



Note of the Government of the French Republic on the Conduct of 
THE German Authorities towards the Population of the French 
Departments occupied by the Enemy. 

On several occasions^ the Government of the Republic has had occasion 
to bring to the notice of neutral Powers the action of the German 
military authorities towards the population of the French territory tem- 
porarily occupied by them as being in conflict with treaty rights. 

The Government of the Republic finds itself to-day obliged to lay 
before foreign governments documents which will establish that our 
enemies have put in force measures still more inconsistent with humanity. 

By order of General von Graevenitz, and with the support of Infantry 
Regiment No. 64, detailed for the purpose by the German General Head- 
quarters, about 25,000 French — consisting of girls between 16 and 20 
years of age, young women, and men up to the age of 55 — without regard 
to social position,^ were torn from their homes at Roubaix, Tourcoingj 
and Lille, separated ruthlessly from their families, and compelled to do 
agricultural work in the Departments of the Aisne and the Ardennes. 

Better than any comment which we can make, the official notices of 
the German authorities, the despairing protests of the Mayor and the 

(^) Notably, in August last, a French Note denounced the behaviour of the Germans 
who at Lille, at Roubaix, and in the neighbouring villages, compelled women and girls to 
make sandbags, work directly connected with military operations. (Ann. 243.) 

(-) The removals were made without regard to social position. It appears, however, 
that some discrimination was effected later on, after an examination of such hands as 
appeared incapable of agricultural labour. This measure — in which humanity bore no 
part — does nothing to lessen the odium of removals, which, none the less, involved keen 
distress to families. If the G-ermans hoped by these means to create a class antagonism 
in a population united against the invader, the examples of devotion, quoted in Annexes 13 
and 19, prove their failure. 



Bishop of Lille, and extracts from the letters received from these locali- 
ties which follow {An7i. A) will throw light upon this new outrage com- 
mitted by the Imperial German Government. 

The Minister of War, under date of the 30th June, 1916, gives us the 
following accounts of these occurrences : — 

Not content with subjecting our people in the North to every kind of oppres- 
sion, the Germans have recently treated them in the most iniquitous way. 

In contempt of rules universally recognised and of their own express promises 
not to molest the civil population, they have taijen women and girls away from 
their families ; they have sent them off, mixed up with men, to destinations 
unknown, to work unknown. 

In the early days of April, official notices offered to families needing work a 
settlement in the country — in the Department of the Nord — with work in the 
fields or at tree-felling (A tut. 28). 

Finding this overture unsuccessful, the Germans decided to have recourse to 
compulsion. From the 9th April onwards they resorted to raids — in the 
streets, in the houses — carrying off men and girls indiscriminately, and sending 
them Heaven knows where (A7in. 12-32). 

A wider scope and a more methodical application were soon given to the 
measure. A General and a large force arrived at Lille (An7i. 1.^, 21, 22), 
among others the 64th Regiment from Yerdun {Ann. 13, 19, 24). 

On the 29th and 30th April, the public were warned by proclamation to be 
prepared for a compulsory evacuation (An)t. 21). 

The Mayor entered an immediate protest, the Bishop tried to gain access to the 
local Commandant, local worthies wrote letters of protest (Ann. 10, 11, 16, 22, 
23, 28). 

No effect ! On Holy Saturday, at three in the morning, methodical raids 
began at Lille in the Fives quarter, in the Marliere quarter of Tourcoing, and at 
Roubaix. After a suspension on Easter Sunday, the work went on all the week, 
ending up in the Saint Maurice quarter of Lille (Ann. 22). 

About three in the morning, troops, with fixed bayonets, barred the streets, 
machine guns commanded the road, against unarmed people {Ann. 14, 15, 
16, 22). 

Soldiers made their way into the houses. The officer pointed out the people 
who were to go, and, half an hour later, everybody was marched pell-mell 
into an adjacent factory, and from there to the station, whence the departure 
took place {Aim. 2, 13, 16, 23, 32). 

Mothers with children under 14 were spared {Ann. 2, 13, 14, 16). 

Gil Is under 20 were deported only when accompanied by one of their family. 
This in no way relieves the barbarity of the proceeding. Soldiers of the Land- 
sturm blushed to be employed on such work {Ann. 20). 

The victims of this brutal act displayed the greatest courage. They were heard 
crying " Vive la France," and singing the Marseillaise in the cattle-trucks in 
which they were carried off {Ann. 14, 20, 32). 

It is said that the men are employed in agriculture, road-mending, the making 
of munitions and trench digging {Arm. 22). 

The women are employed in cooking and laundry-work for the soldiers and as 
substitutes for officers' servants {Ann. 19, 22). 

For this severe work, housemaids, domestic servants and factory women have 
been taken by preference {Ann. 20, 22). 

No servants are left in the Rue Royale at Lille {Ann. 19). 

But some brave girls of the upper middle-class have come forward and 

refused to allow the working-class girls to go alone. The names of Miles B 

and de B are mentioned as having insisted on accompanying the girls of 

their district {Ann. 13, 19.) 

The unfortunate people, thus requisitioned, have been scattered from Seclin 
and Templeuve {Ami. 19, 22, 28), as far as the Ardennes {Ann. 19, 20, 28, 32). 

Their number is estimated at about 25,000, from the towns of Lille, Roubaix, 
and Tourcoing {Ayin. 19). 

The Quartier de la Place at Lille, the communes of Loos, Haubourdin, la 
Madeleine, and Lambersart are said to have been spared. 
Unequalled emotion was felt by the population of the North of France, 
without distinction of classes, during these days of Holy Week^^^ 

(•) See the letter of the 30th April, addressed to M. Jules Cambon, Secretary-General 
to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, formerly French Ambassador at Berlm and an ex- 
Prefect of Lille (Ann. 12, 13) 



6 

These measures surpass in inhuinanity those previously adopted. It is, 
however, necessary to return to the latter. 

It appears necessary to compare the documents annexed to this Note 
with a reply given by the German Government (An?i. 244) to ii previous 
complaint relating to work enforced, in violation of the Convention, on 
the civil population of Landrecies and Hancourt (Ann. 242). 

After declaring that at Landrecies the French who are liable to 
military service have work suitable to their profession assigned to them, 
the German Government asserts that at Landrecies, Hancourt, and every- 
where else the population of the occupied French districts is treated with 
justice and perfect humanity. 

The documents annexed to the present Note will show the value of 
this assertion. It is not a matter of men liable to military service having 
been forced to work; women, and girls between 16 and 20, have been 
taken into captivity and sent into exile. 

Does the German Government, denying the principles, the sanctity of 
which it accepted in the Hague Convention, maintain that a belligerent 
has the right to compel enemy civilians to work ? 

In a Note dated the 22nd March, 1916 (Ann. 245), it stated that it 
felt compelled to " request the French Government to issue orders to all 
commandants of internment camps on the subject of forced labour, and 
to require a formal declaration with regard to the matter." 

This declaration was made to the Imperial Government on several 
occasions and in the most definite form. How can that Government 
reconcile its claim in respect to interned German civilians — whom it 
declares not to be liable to forced labour — with its admission that 
French civilians, liable to military service, but at liberty, are constrained 
to labour, or with the disgraceful measures taken at Roubaix and Lille 
with regard to women and girls? 

In orders placarded at Lille the German military authority has 
endeavoured to justify the wholesale deportations ordered at Lille and 
Roubaix as a retaliation for the attitude of England in making 
the provisioning of the population increasingly difficult (Ann. 1). 
Nothing can justify such a barbarous measure. Seizure of contra- 
band and interference with enemy commerce are acts of war; deporta- 
tion of the population without military necessity is not an act of war. 
Moreover, to dispose of this pretended justification, it is sufficient to 
show that Germany has not only stripped — for her own profit — the 
occupied districts of all the products which would have ensured the 
subsistence of the inhabitants, but also, previously to any inter- 
ference with enemy commerce, organised for her own benefit the 
exploitation of the labour of French civilians. 

To show this, extracts from the depositions of French citizens who 
have been evacuated from the invaded Departments are annexed to the 
present Note (Ann. B). 

These depositions vv-ere made on oath before the magistrates of the 
districts where the evacuated people found asylum in all parts of France, 
by refugees from all points of the invaded Departments. 

They were made in response to a form of enquiry in which the question 
of forced labour was not in contemplation — it was too much at variance 



with international law. They emanate from persons of all ages and 
conditions, and their absolute agreement (more than two hundred have 
been taken) proves that the civil population of the Departments occupied 
by the German troops has been reduced to absolute servitude by the 
army of occupation. 

Article 52 of the regulations annexed to the Fourth Convention of 
the Hague permits requisitions in kind and in services for the needs of 
the army of occupation. In the recorded depositions there is no question 
of any regular form of requisitions. Services, sometimes of a most 
repulsive nature, have been forcibly imposed (Ann. B-i.) on the entire 
civil population, without distinction of sex,(^) age, (2) or social position. (^) 
These unhappy people had to present themselves for the work imposed 
on them by night or by day (Ann. 88-91), at all sorts of places and at 
great distances from their homes, (*) sometimes even under artillery 
fire,(^) in most cases without any kind of remuneration, (^) in others for 
a few crusts of bread (Ann. B-mii. and Ann. 122, 230). 

The German military authority has never concerned itself with the 
care of the population which the war has brought under its provisional 
administration. The products of the forced labour of the population 
has been transported to Germany in spite of the absolute destitution of 
the workers. (^) 

Finally, it can be established from these depositions that the German 
authorities have not hesitated to compel the population to take part in 
military operations against their own country (Ann. B-x.) ; they have even 
obliged them to assist in pillaging their own countryside ! (Ann. 95, 
158-160). 

They have employed them as direct auxiliaries of the combatant 
forces, either by placing them in front of the German troops to serve 
as shields (Ann. 73, 161, 164, 173, 183, 186, 210) or by compelling them 
to do work in connection with military operations (Ann. B-xi. and Ann. 
86, 100). 

Where this working material — for there is no more a question of 
human beings but of mere machines moved from place to place as 
required — where this human material gives out in certain districts of 
the occupied territory, the German authorities draw without limit 
either on the internment camps where, contrary to all law, the 
mobilisable men belonging to this territory have been confined (Ann. 
B-vi.), or on the other invaded districts. The people are not sent back to 
their former homes. These civilians are formed into regiments and, 
although the Germans themselves acknowledge that they ought not to 
be compelled to work, they are sent to any point of the districts occupied 
by the German army and compelled to perform the most severe labour. (*) 
And when France demands, in the name of some agonised family, infor- 
mation as to the fate of an unhappy exile, the German Government 
replies (Ann. 104) that the military authorities do not consider themselves 



C) Ann. B-iii. and Ann. 35, 55, 126, 184, 185, 230. 

(2) Ann. B-iii. and Ann. 55, 100, 152, 171, 174, 179, 184, 198, 207, 210. 

(») Ann. B-ii. atid A?in. 90, 95, 118. 

0) An7i. B-v. afid Ann. 200, 225. 

0') A7in. 88-91. 

(«) Ann. B-vii. and Ann. 35, 52, 73, 89, 100, 151. 

O) Ann. B-ix. and Ann. 69, 86, 116, 159, 202, 217. 

(«) Ann. 95, 96, 105, lOG, 114, 116-120, 202, 210, 226, 241. 



8 

under any obligation to explain their reasons for these transferences. 
For entire niontlis it is impossible to find out what has become of the 
unhappy people (Ann. B-^i.). 

The indisputable result of the following declarations, read as a whole, 
is that, without any immediate necessity, not in the excitement of 
battle — moments which might excuse the violations of international 
law committed by the German authorities — those authorities, in pur- 
suance of a deliberate purpose and according to a predetermined method, 
have reduced the unfortunate population of the invaded districts to a 
condition which can be likened only to slavery. 

In 1885, at the time of the African Conference of Berlin — with respect 
to which Germany had taken the initiative — she engaged, so far as the 
African territories subject to her sovereignty or her influence were con- 
cerned, to preserve the native populations and to improve their material 
and moral conditions of life. 

After having collected the information, of necessity very restricted, 
which reaches it from invaded France and which it submits to the 
consideration of the Neutral Powers, the Government of the Eepublic 
is entitled to doubt whether the German authorities are observing, with 
regard to the populations of which it has for the moment the charge, 
the engagements entered into by the Imperial Government in respect 
to the black populations of Central Africa. 

A. BRIAND, 

President of the Council. 
Minister of Foreign Affairs. 



9 



Until a more complete code of the laws of war 
can be issued, the High Contracting Parties think it 
expedient to declare that in cases not included in the 
Regulations adopted by them, the populations and 
belligerents remain under the protection and the rule 
of the principles of the Law of Nations, as they 
result from the usages established between civilised 
nations, from the laws of humanity, and the re- 
quirements of the public conscience. 

{Hague Convention^ ISth October, 1907 ; Laws 
and Customs of War on Land — Preamble.) 

All the Powers exercising the right of sovereignty 
or exercising influence in the said territories engage 
to preserve the native populations, to ameliorate 
their moral and material conditions of life, and to 
co-operate in the suppression of slavery and above all 
of the slave-trade. 

{General Act of the African Conference of 
Berlin, 188 5, Article 6.) 

Family honour and rights, the lives of individuals 
and private property, as well as religious convictions 
and liberty of worship, must be respected. 

{Hague Convention, ISth October, 1907, 
Article 46.) 



ANNEXES.-A. 
DOCUMENTS EELATING 

TO THE WHOLESALE DEPORTATION AND DISPERSION 

OF WOMEN, GIRLS, AND MEN, FROM 

LILLE, ROUBAIX, AND TOURCOING, 

(April, 1916.) 



10 
-GERMAN DOCUMENTS. 



Annexe 1. 

Proclamation of the German Military Commandant of Lille. 

This document and the one following it, which were brought to the knowledge of 
the French Government from numerous sources of information which confirmed one 
another, were placarded at Lille during Holy Week {Ann. 13, 21, 23, 32). 

The attitude of England makes the provisioning of the population 
more and more difficult. 

In order to relieve the distress, the German Government has recently 
asked for volunteers to go to work in the country. This offer has not had 
the success anticipated. 

Consequently, the inhabitants will be evacuated by order and removed 
to the country. The evacuated persons will be sent to the interior of the 
occupied FrencTi territory, far behind the front, where they will be 
employed m agriculture, and in no way on military works. 

This measure will give them the opportunity of making better pro- 
vision for their subsistence. 

In case of necessity, it will be possible to obtain provisions from the 
German depots. 

Each evacuated person will be allowed 30 kilogrammes of luggage 
(household utensils, clothes, &c.), which it would be well to prepare 
immediately. 

I therefore order as follows : — Pending further orders, no person 
shall change his residence. No person may be absent from his declared 
legal residence between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a,m, (German time) 
unless he is in possession of a permit. 

Since this measure cannot be recalled, it is in the interest of the 
population itself to remain calm and obedient, 

THE COMMANDANT. 

Lille, April, 1916. 



Annexe 2. 
Notice. 

{Frovi the French Text.) 

All the inhabitants of the house, with the exception of children under 
fourteen and their mothers, and of the aged, must prepare themselves to 
be transported within an hour and a-half . 

An officer will decide definitively what persons are to be taken to the 
concentration camps. Eor this purpose, all the inhabitants of the house 
must assemble in front of the house; in case of bad weather they may 
remain in the passage. The door of the house must remain open. No 
protest will be listened to. No inhabitant of the house (even including 
those who are not to be transported) may leave it before 8 a.m. (German 
time) . 

Each person will be entitled to 30 kilogrammes of luggage; if the 
weight is excessive, the whole of the luggage of the person concerned 
will be peremptorily refiised. The packages must be packed separately 
for each person, and provided with an address legibly written and firmly 



11 

affixed. The address must bear the surname, first name, and the number 
of the identity card. 

It is absolutely necessary that each person should, in his own interest, 
provide himself with eating and drinking utensils, with a woollen blanket, 
with good shoes and with body linen. Every person must bring his 
identity card. Any person endeavouring to avoid transportation will 
be punished without mercy. 

Etappen-Kommandantur. 



II.— FRENCH DOCUMENTS 



Protests of the French Government. 

Annexe 3. 

Telegram. 

From the Ainhassador, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, to M. Beau, French Ambassador at Berne, Paris, 21th June, 
191G. 

The population of the North of France are being subjected by the 
German authorities to a regim^e which violates all the rules established by 
international law, and more especially by the Regulations annexed to the 
Convention of the Hague, 1907, for the government of territories occupied 
and provisionally administered by the enemy. Persons of both sexes 
are being removed, separated from their families, carried off to distant 
places, and arbitrarily compelled to perform work of different sorts. 
About 25,000 French citizens, girls between 16 and 20, young women, 
men up to the age of 58, have been indiscriminately removed from their 
homes at Roubaix, Tourcoing, and Lille. A notice from the Komman- 
dantur at Lille was placarded on the 12th May last, granting to the 
persons who were to be transported the space of one hour and a half to 
make their preparations for departure, and threatening recalcitrants with 
severe penalties. The Mayor and the Bishop of Lille entered protests 
against this abuse of power. 

Kindly request the Spanish Minister at Berne to be good enough to 
acquaint His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin with these 
facts and to beg him to intervene with all possible energy in order to 
put an end to this state of things and to ensure that the people who 
have been the victims of these arbitrary acts shall be sent back to their 
homes. 

The Department will furnish 3-ou as soon as possible with copies of 
the documents which it may collect bearing upon this subject and upon 
the position of the French population in the occupied districts. 

(Signed) JFLES CAMBON. 



12 

Annexe 4. 

Telegram. 

From the Ambassador, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, to the French Ambassador at Berne, Paris, 27th June, 
1916. 

Following on my previous telegram : We are informed that the girls 
belonging to families of a certain social rank have been returned to their 
relations, but the great majority of the persons removed from their homes 
have not been set at liberty. 

(Signed) JULES CAMBON. 



Annexe 5. 

Telegram. 

From, the Ambassador, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, to the Diplomatic Representatives of France, 1st July, 1916. 

The French Government has learnt that 25,000 French citizens, men, 
women, girls and children, without distinction of social position, have 
been removed from Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, and the neighbouring 
villages and taken either into the invaded French Departments or even, 
it is believed, to Germany, to be compelled to perform agricultural 
labour. On the 12th May last, the Kommandantur of Lille posted up a 
notice giving the persons whom it was intended to remove the space of 
one hour and a half to make their preparations for departure, and 
threatening recalcitrants with severe penalties. 

The Bishop and the Mayor of Lille protested against this abuse of 
force, which is in violation at once of international law, of the Con- 
ventions relating to the conduct of war on land, of humanity, and of 
morality. 

The Government of the Eepublic is at this moment collecting the 
documents which establish these facts, as well as those which have come 
to its knowledge in regard to the general manner in which the popula- 
tions of the invaded French districts are treated by the occupying 
authorities. 

Without waiting for the transmission of these documents, I beg you 
to bring to the notice of the Government to which you are accredited 
this fresh violation of the Law of Nations by the German authorities. 

We have requested the Spanish Government, which is charged with 
the defence of French interests in Germany, to lodge the most emphatic 
protest with the Imperial Government, in order to put an end to this 
state of things and to ensure that the persons who have been the victims 
of these arbitrary proceedings shall be restored to their homes. 

The French Government is anxious to present its most energetic, 
protest to the Governments of all civilised countries. 

(Signed) JULES CAMBON. 



13 

Annexe 6. 

Telegbam. 

From the Ambassador, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, to the French Ambassador at Madrid, Paris, bth July, 1916. 

Following on my telegram of the 27tli June: — The Council of 
Ministers has decided that special representations should be made to 
His Majesty the King of Spain on the subject of the removal from their 
homes of 25,000 French men and women belonging to the towns of the 
Department of the Nord, who have been compelled to undertake agri- 
cultural labour in the other invaded Departments. 

The President of the Council requests you to give effect to these 
urgent representations, laying stress on the odious nature of the measures 
taken. 

The Mayor of Lille, M. Delesalle, in a protest addressed to the German 
authority at the moment when the news of this abuse of power became 
generally known at Lille, wrote as follows : — " To destroy and break up 
families, to tear peaceable citizens by thousands from their homes, to 
force them to leave their property without protection, constitutes an 
act of a nature to arouse general indignation." And Monseigneur the 
Bishop of Lille, interceding " in the name of the religious mission 
confided to him," in defence of " the Law of Nature which the law of 
war must never infringe, and of that eternal morality whose rules 
nothing can suspend," has protested in these terms: — "To dismember 
the family by tearing youths and girls from their homes is not war ; it 
is for us torture and the worst of torture — unlimited moral torture." 

These moving words have not prevailed against the brutality of tke 
occupying authorities. 

They must be listened to. 

No voice is more capable of making them heard than that of the 
sovereign of the country charged with the defence of the interests of 
our compatriots in Germany. 

(Signed) JULES CAMBON. 



Annexe 7. 
Telegram. 

From the French Ambassador at Madrid to the President of the Council 
and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 2nd July, 1916. 

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's 
telegram dated the 28th June last. 

In accordance with your instructions I have not failed to impress on 
His Excellency, M. Gimeno. the ill-treatment of which the inhabitants 
of the invaded districts are the victims. I have begged him to request 
His Excellency, M. Polo de Bernabe, to make an energetic protest against 
the proceedings of the German authorities. 

(Signed) GEOFFEAY. 



14 

Annexe S. 

Ansioer of the GerirMn Government. 

The Gennan Government admits that the measures in question have been put into 
effective operation ; the documents which follow will show the conditions under which 
they have been carried out. 

All the depositions annexed to the present Note establish that the work enforced on the 
French civil population has been solely in the interests of Germany herself, and not only 
of her army of occupation. 

Even should the German Government claim to have established clearly that the work 
was solely in the interests of a population which the intervention of the Spanish-American 
Committees would have been adequate to provision by other means, it remains none the 
less the fact that the method employed is contrary to humanity and must revolt the 
conscience of every free people. 

Telegram. 

From the French ATnbassador at Berne to the President of the Council 
and Minister of Foreign Affairs, bth July, 1916. 

His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin telegraphs as 
follows in reply to the communication made to him in pursuance of the 
instructions contained in your telegram of the 27th June : — 

" The German Minister of Foreign Affairs has declared to me 
verbally that the persons referred to in the telegram of the 29tb 
June — to a number with which he is not acquainted — are employed 
on harvest work, for the benefit of the occupied provinces, in order 
to procure food for the inhabitants, who would otherwise die of 
starvation as a result of the policy pursued against Germany by 
France and England." 

(Signed) BEAU. 



Annexe 9. 
Telegram. 

From the ATnbassador, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, to the French ATnbassador at Madrid, Paris, 8th July, 1916. 

I communicate to you herewith the telegram of which I am in receipt 
from our Ambassador at Berne : — 

(TelegraTn of the bth July. Ann. 8.) 

If the occupying authority has experienced difficulties in finding 
the voluntary labour necessary for agricultural operations, the 
reason is that since the last harvest, the workers have not enjoyed 
the fruits of their labour. Just as in the case of raw materials 
and of industrial equipment, the produce of the earth has been 
requisitioned and sent to Germany. We may be allowed, then, to 
doubt to-day whether the crops resulting from the labour enforced 
under the cruel conditions with which you are acquainted will 
be used for the benefit of our compatriots — who are, moreover, pro- 
visioned by the Spanish- American Commission. 

Whatever may be the motives of the measure taken, it is, owing 
to the method by which it is effected, absolutely contrary to the 
Law of Nations and to humanity. The French who have been torn 
from their homes and forced to perform this labour must be set at 
liberty as quickly as possible. 



15 

In bringing tlie foregoing information to the notice of the Spanish 
Government, I beg you to request that Government to make renewed 
representations on this subject to the German Government. 

(Signed) JULES CAMBON. 



VARIOUS DOCUMENTS. 

Annexe 10. 
Protest of the Mayor of Lille. 



This document, as also the one which follows, has been communicated to the French 
Government, which is in possession of confirmatory evidence in regard to it from several 
different sources. 

Monsieur le Oouverneur, 

Being still convalescent from illness and confined to the house, I hear, with 
inexpressible emotion, intelligence which I still wish to be able to discredit. 
I am informed that the German authority entertains the intention of 
deporting a considerable portion of our population and of removing them to 
other parts of the occupied territory. After the oflBcial declaration which 
you placarded on the walls, to the effect that the war was not waged 
against civilians, that the rights, property, and liberty of the population 
would be guaranteed to them on the sole condition that they remained quiet, 
I could not have believed that such a measure would be resorted to. If such 
is to be the case, as first magistrate of our city, I must permit myself to 
express the most energetic protest against what I should consider as a gross 
violation of the Law of Nations as universally recognized. 

To destroy and break up families, to toar peaceable citizens by thousands 
from their homes, to force them to leave their property without protection, 
constitutes an act of a nature to arouse general indignation. Our soldiers, 
like yours, are doing their duty valiantly, but all the international conven- 
tions agree in leaving the civil population outside the scope of this terrible 
conflict. 

I venture, therefore, to hope, Your Excellency, that such an eventuality 
will not come to pass. 

(Signed) DELESALLE, 

Mayor of Lille. 



Annexe 11. 

Protest of Monseigneur Charost, Bishop of Lille, addressed to General 

von Graevenitz. 

Monsieur le General, 

It is my duty to bring to your notice the fact that a very agitated state of 
mind exists among the population. 

Numerous removals of women and girls, certain transfers of men and 
youths, and even of children, have been carried out in the districts of 
Tourcoing and Roubaix without judicial procedure or trial. 

The unfortunate people have been sent to unknown places. Measures 
equally extreme and on a larger scale are contemplated at Lille. You will 
not be surprised. Monsieur le General, that I intercede with you in the 
name of the religious mission confided to me. That mission lays on me the 
burden of defending, with respect but with courage, the Law of Nations, 
which the law of war must never infringe, and that eternal morality, whose 

9288 B 



16 

rules nothing can suspend. It makes it my duty to protect the feeble and 
the unarmed, who are as my family to me and whose burdens and sorrows 
are mine. 

You are a father ; you know that there is not in the order of humanity a 
right more honourable or more holy than that of tha family. For every 
Christian the inviolability of God, who created the family, attaches to it. 
The German officers who have been billeted for a long time in our homes know 
hov7 deep in our hoarts we of the North hold family affection and that it is 
the sweetest thing: in life to us. Thus, to dismember the family, by tearing 
youths and girls from their homes, is not war ; it is for us torture and the 
worst of tortures— unlimited moral torture. The violation of family 
rights is doubled by a violation of the sacred demands of morality. 
Morality is exposed to perils, the mere idea of which revolts every honest 
man, from the promiscuity which inevitably accompanies removals en masse, 
involving mixture of the sexes, or, at all events, of persons of very unequal 
moral standing. Young girls of irreproachable life — who have never 
committed any worse oaence than that of trying to pick up some bread or a 
few potatoes to feed a numerous family, and who have, bssides, paid the light 
penalty for such trespass — have been carried off. Their mothers, who have 
watched so closely over them, and had no other joy than that of keeping 
their daughters beside them, in the absence of father and sons fighting 
or killed at the front— these mothers are now alone. They bring to me 
their despair and their anguish. I am speaking of what I have seen and 
heard. I knov/ that you have no part in these harsh measures. You 
are by nature inclined towards justice ; that is why I venture to turn to 
yon; I beg you to be good enough to forward without delay to the German 
High Military Command this letter from a Bishop, whose deep grief they will 
easily imagine. We have suffered much for the last twenty months, but no 
stroke of fortune eculd be comparable to this; it would be as undeserved as 
it is cruel and would produce in all France an indelible impression. I cannot 
believe that the blov/ will fall. I have faith in the human conscience and I 
preserve the hope that the young men and girls of respectable families will 
be restored to their homes in answer to the demand for their return and that 
sentiments of justice and honour will prevail over all lower considerations. 

(Signed) ALEZIS-ARMAND. 

Bishop. 



Annexe 12. 

Letter addressed by M. D.,(^) retired Surveyor of Taxes, to M. Jules 
CaviLon, French Ambassador, forvierly Prefect of Lille. 

Paris, July 2ud, 1916. 
My dear Secretart-General, 

You will find enclosed a letter from Lille, addressed to the 
family of my son-in-law, M. G., copied in his office. Tlie letter is 
from Mme D., tlie wife of a merchant of tliat city. It gives evidence 
of the ill-treatment by the Germans of the population of Lille and the 
sufferings which onr unfortunate fellow-countrymen have had to endure. 
I hope sincerely that the letter may be of some use to you. 

I am, Yours, . . . 

(Signed) G. D. 

(') It is impossible to give the naines of the writers or of their families, as they are 
still in the occupied territory. 



17 



Annexe 13. 

Letter attached to the above. 

" My dear E., Lille, April 30tli, 1916. 

What I have to tell you is so sad and so long tliat I have not the 
heart to write it twice. Will you read this letter and then pass it on 
to M., for her to send round and finally keep in her own hands. 

" My dear M., 

The last three weeks, and especially the last week, we have 
spent in the most terrible anguish and moral torture possible for a 
mother's heart. On the pretext of difficulties caused by England 
in the matter of provisions and of the refusal of the men out of 
work to volunteer for work in the fields, the Germans have 
embarked on a forcible evacuation of the population, with 
an inconceivable refinement of cruelty. They did not proceed 
as on the first occasion by whole families ; no, community of suffering 
they thought would be too easy for us, and so they took one, two, 
three, four or five members from each family — men, women, youths, 
children of 15, girls, any one — whoever was chosen, quite arbi- 
trarily, by an officer. And to prolong the agony for us all, they 
operated by districts, without even giving notice in which district 
they would operate each night; for it was at dawn, at 3 in the morn- 
ing, that these heroes, with a band, and machine guns and fixed 
bayonets, would go and hunt out women and children to take them 
away. God knows where or why. They say : Ear from the front, 
for work which has nothing to do with the war ; but we have already 
heard that the poor things have been received in certain places with 
volleys of stones because they were coming, it was alleged, volun- 
tarily, to work where the population had refused to do so. It is a 
diabolical lie, as is the whole scheme; for this was the object of the 
registration card, giving age, sex, capacity and aptitude for all sorts 
of work, and the identity card which we had to carry with us always, 
and the prohibition to sleep away from home. Well, for about the 
last three weeks raids were carried out in the two large neighbouring 
towns ; any one was taken, in the streets, in the trams, and those who 
were taken never reappeared. We were terrified, and when several 
girls and children had been carried off like this, the civil and 
ecclesiastical authorities protested in admirable terms : "I cannot 
believe," said one, "in this violation of all justice and all rights; 
this abominable act, opposed alike to morality and justice, would 
bring on its authors universal condemnation." ** I learn," said 
another, "that our families are threatened with extreme measures; 
I have faith in the conscience of humanity; a punishment which 
could tear girls and children from their mothers, to send them to 
unknown destinations in horrible promiscuity, would be as cruel as 
it is undeserved; it would be contrary to the very elements of 
morality. You are a father, your Excellency, and you will under- 
stand what such extreme measures would mean for our closely united 
families." 

In answer to this, the writers of the protests were assembled on 
Thursday before Easter at 4 o'clock, and when they were assembled 
placards of terror were posted up, and they were given to understand 
that that was their answer, and that when they went into the streets 
they could read it like the rest of the population. Further, they 
were told, as the abominable action had been decided upon, they 

■9288 B 2 



18 

had notliiiig to do but to liold their tongues. Well, the notice 
warned everybody — except infirm old men, children under 14 and 
their mothers — to hold themselves ready for deportation, each being 
entitled to 30 kilog'rammcs of luggage. With this object in view, 
domiciliary visits were going to be made, all the inhabitants of a 
house being bound to present themselves at the door of the open 
house with their identity card in their hands, to show themselves to 
the officer, who notified which of them was to be deported ; no protest 
was to be made. As we came out of church we read this threat, 
which was to be carried out at once for some, and which, in other 
cases, hung over our heads like a sword of Damocles ; and this during 
ten long days and ten interminable nights, since the Germans were 
working by districts. And it was left to the arbitrary pleasure of 
an officer to choose the victims. And not knowing from night to 
night if it was our turn, we used to wake up as if in a dreadful 
nightmare, with sweat on our brow and anguish in our heart. 
No words can tell you what those days were. We are all still 
prostrate from it. 

On the night of Friday to Saturday before Easter, at 3 o'clock, the 
troops, on their rounds to invest the first district on the list. Fives, 
came to our house. It was terrible. The officer went round, 
pointing out the men and women whom he chose, and giving 
them, to make their preparations, a period varying from an hour 
to ten minutes. Antoine D. and his sister of 22 were carried off. 
After considerable difficulties the sister under 14 was left, and her 
grandmother, ill from grief and terror, had to receive the rites of 
the Church at once; at last the girl was allowed to return. But 
here an old man, there two invalids could not get leave to keep the 
daughter who was their only support. And everywhere the German, 
jeered, adding insult to injury. For example, at the house of the 
doctor, B.'s uncle, they left Madame the choice between her two 
servants; she chose the elder one. " Good," they answered, "that 
is the one we will take." The youngest Mile L., who has just had 
typhoid and bronchitis, saw the sergeant who was carrying off her 
servant approaching her: "What a sad duty we have to do." 
*' More than sad, monsieur, one might call it barbarous." " That 
is a hard word. Are you not afraid that I shall give you away? " 
And, as a matter of fact, the traitor did denounce her. She was 
given seven minutes and carried off bare-headed, in slippers, to the 
colonel who was in charge of this noble military operation and who 
condemned her to go in spite of the doctor's opinion. And it was 
only due to his inexhaustible energy and the pity of a German less 
brutal than the others that she obtained her release at 5 o'clock in 
the evening, after a day of perfect agony. 

The miserable people, at whose doors a sentinel for each victim 
was on guard, were taken off first to some place — a church or a school 
— then in a troop, all classes together, of all moral grades, modest 
girls and prostitutes, surrounded by soldiers, with a band at the 
head, to the station, whence they set out in the evening without 
knowing their destination or to what work they were to be set. 

And through it all our people preserved their calm and their 
dignity admirably, although that day the Germans gave ihem every 
provocation, by parading the motors full of these wretched victims 
round the streets. They all started off with cries of " Vive la 
France! " "Vive la liberte ! " and siuging the Marseillaise. They 
comforted those who were left behind, their poor weeping mothers and 
the children ; pale with grief and choked by tears, they forbade them 



19 

to weep ; they did not weep tliemselves and remained proud, appearing 
impassive in face of their persecutors. I will go on with my story. 
'A respite was announced for Easter Day and the Monday, torty-eight 
hours; it was a great deal, A fresh vehement indignant protest was 
despatched to the High Command; a slight hope sprang up again. 
In the evening the sermon ended with these admirable words: *' I 
should have liked to leave you with a word of joy and hope, but 
those who for the last two years have oppressed us and have over- 
whelmed us with a thousand persecutions, have turned these days of 
rejoicings into days of mourning. My risen Christ, wilt Thou not 
breathe in me a word of confidence on this day of the Resurrection? 
Listen, my people, let the wicked man accomplish his iniquity, keep 
your soul tranquil and your heart courageous. And you, my 
children, be brave. Providence is near and will know what you 
have suffered, the Eternal God will take upon Him your defence. 
He will brand with an indelible mark the forehead of your oppressor, 
and those who have seen you set out on a bitter path with mourning 
and weeping will see you return with triumph and great glory, for 
suffering passes away, but to suffer for the Right and for Justice 
endures for ever (Prophecy of the Prophet Baruch)." These words, 
delivered from the pulpit, with authority, seemed a very Anathema. 
All shuddered, and tears stood in the eyes of all. 

We were counting on a respite of at least one more night, but 
in the evening, at half pn'^t nine, the Town Hall caught fire. It is 
better to preserve the general silence about this occurrence; what 
is the good of talking? The fire broke out just above the ofiice in 
which were the only requisition vouchers, pledging the credit of 
State to State. Thanks to our Town Councillors, who were more 
devoted than can be expressed, these vouchers were saved, as well 
as the town records and accounts, till the next time. But the fire 
soon took hold in every part ; there was no water and the building 
was gutted. And by the light of the fire, at three in the morning, 
the domiciliary visits began again in the Yauban quarter. By good 
luck the D.'s, counting on the respite, imagined it was a simple 
verification, and, as no one was chosen in their house, were not 
even alarmed. It was not until an hour later that they realised that 
people were being carried off. Mile B., Mile de B., Mile L., who 
could only be released at 5 o'clock in the evening; young men, D., 
D., Van P., Jean F., J., M., mostly 17 years old, and numbers of 
others, 1,500 to 2,000 a day. The servants were carried off every- 
where almost, or offered themselves voluntarily to take the place of 
the daughters of the house or to accompany them. On the other 
hand, Mme D. took the place of her maid who was ill; when she 
was sent back she wanted to stay : " You ought not to send me back 
because I have some money, can't you see that it is disgraceful," and 
they threatened to send her back forcibly. The concentration camps 
looked like slave markets, and the Germans were told so. 

As our turn came late, we had time to warn as far as possible the 
girls whom we call among ourselves " les Soeurs " or " les Nous 
Deux." They packed their luggage courageously, each of them 
wanting, in case of the worst, to take the other's place, and I had 
to decide who had better be let go. On the Monday we got some 
comfort in the small village where we used to go with you last year ; 
everybody overwhelmed us with their sympathy, anxious for us and 
with us, for no one, not even our Town Councillors, was free from 
fear. All did their best for us and Mme D. made me promise to 
let her know; if the above mentioned girls were to go, she, ae she 



20 

was free, would go with them and be a mother to them. And 
for the whole week this agony lasted, this anguish weighed us down. 
A., A.'s servant, was carried off but let go again, thanks partly 
to her father; so too C. and her young sister, whose gratitude waf? 
touching. L. A.'s daughter carried oft. At last our turn came. 
As you can imagine, I could not sleep. I heard the troops 
coming round and woke up the whole household when the visiU 
began in the street at four o'clock. It lasted till half-past one, our 
turn at half-past ten. Do you realise our agony for those si^ 
mortal hours? 'No doubt we had a chance of succeeding in getting 
them exempted, but it was almost equally certain for every one 
that some would be taken, and was it not too much to spend the day 
without any real certainty of getting them off — a day for them 
spent among the lowest girls of our district. Well, God again 
showed us His fatherly protection, and after counting every one the 
Germans went on without choosing anyone ; but we are still 
prostrate. It was wretched to watch the girls of our .street going 
past in silence, one by one, escorted by a sentry; three from the 
little workshop which I had started. I had warned them with 
deep emotion of the dangers they would have to guard against. It 
was tlie Good Friday before the first deportation and they could not 
restrain their tears and like everyone else they were distressed at 
the thought that they were going to be made to work for the enemy 
and were asking what they would have to do. 

Meanwhile all fear has not passed for us. Is not father himself, 
alas ! threatened ? They have taken the principal accountant of our 
factory, the husband of M., who is the same age as he is. What 
if he were to be taken, too? Pray, dear, pray all of you with 
us, I implore you, and while thanking God for having spared 
us this time, us, Aunt A. and all her children as well as our 
relations and friends (relations of B.), pray God to continue His 
protection, we have such great need of it ! AVill deliverance never 
come? Think, my friends, of the grief of all these mothers who 
were watching over their daughters with such care and from whom 
their daughters have been roughly torn. And soldiers and officers 
have consented to do such work. 

They were told — another lie — that we had revolted and that it 
was a punishment. And at Eoubais the officers of the Guards 
refused, in the face of a calm and dignified population, to carry off 
women and children by night. Here it is the G4th regiment, back 
from Yerdun, that has consented to do the work. Some of them, 
they said, would have preferred to stay in the trenches. . . . 
At any rate they will get the Iron Cross, and the name of this 
glorious feat of arms will decorate their colours. 

Above all, above all our soldiers at the front must not avenge U3 
by similar acts; that would sully the fair name of France. Let 
them leave it to God to avenge such misdeeds, such crimes. The 
Germans, as a woman told them from whom they took her husband, 
her son, and her daughter, will be accursed in their race, in their 
wives and in their children. 

This is the end of this long and miserable story, but I have ni.tt 
been able to depict the terrible suffering of those whose homes have 
thus been decimated. Many will die of it. As Monseigneur said, 
it is the passion of our families added to the Passion of Christ. One 
woman sweated blood on seeing her young son taken; he was brought 
back to her, but she did not recognise him. It is terrible and our 
position seems to me very critical. Pray for us. Soon, we are 



21 

told, it will be all the men. Many wlio are left, were told : " In a 
fortnight." Then, the story runs, it will be deportation to France, 
if one pays, and that we shall have to refuse to do. . . . The 
Germans are trying already to get money and I know one who is 
near to you and who refused with his usual calm dignity; like all 
good Frenchmen he has given his all to France and has nothinof 
left, but then no more business, no more outside trade, and I am 
afraid they will try to force us that way, no more food. Already, 
since you went away, or rather during the last three months, they 
have only distributed meat twice. 

But let us finish on a more cheerful note. Yesterday we had a 
good letter from H. at last; he cannot, unfortunately, tell us of the 
family which is oa the other side, but only of those who are near 
him, that is how he told us that our dear G. and H. have gone to work 
and are well. If at the price of all our sufferings we could succeed 
in seeing all those again whom we love, with what joy would we 
bear our misery ! How cheerfully do we already offer our sacrifice 
to that end ! We are not at all overwhelmed, everyone remains firm 
and full of courage, and the Germans, in spite of the pleasure some 
of them say they have taken in the sight, have hardly ever had the 
chance of seeing our women and girls weep. 

Do you remember? We used to say laughingly: "When yow 
have gone, we shall tell you that what we suffered when you were 
there was nothing." Alas! we did not think we were speaking 
«o truly. The very day after your departure came the proclama- 
tion about typhus and the Draconian regulations for those who had 
it, the threat, carried out in many cases, of patients being taken to 
hospital where their families could not nurse them or even see them. 
Then a thousand annoyances: cards, registration, &c., and the 
privation of everything, meat, butter, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, 
aothing more except by smuggling, which was getting more rare 
and more dangerous every day. And less news than ever — only one 
letter since your departure and M. P.'s. And yet others get news. 
Still, perhaps, all these small trials spare us greater ones. Let 
■us say our "Fiat" together, pray God together to continue His 
protection to us. Here we think of you, love you, pray with you, 
suffer for you. 

Love to the dear children whom we miss so much and to all our 
dear ones, to G., and to you, all love from 

Mae IE. 

'* P.S. — This letter is no exaggeration. You can communicate it, so as 
to make the German jjeople known to those who would not have enough 
hatred and contemjjt to prevent them having dealings with Germans 
after the war. We are told that on the other side people think that our 
life, apart from some petty persecutions, is bearable. Well, then, no. 
It has not been for the last five months. There was the typhus gaining 
ground steadily, then the explosion and the terrible shock of it even for 
those not directly affected. And the privations of all sorts. The petty 
persecutions which go so far as to deprive the town of all substantial food. 
¥o meat, except that of the Committee, may be brouglit into the town, 
and we have had twice 150 grammes per person in four months ; again, 
one pays 5 francs a pound for it even to the Committee. In order to 
give my family a slice of meat as thin as a leaf and as large as the hollow 
of your hand, each slice costing me 1 franc 50, I am almost always 
obliged to go and fetch it in Hellemmes or Marcq, risking nothing lesa 
than to be led off into the Citadel, since it is forbidden to bring into 



22 

Lille from tlie outside any meat or otter provisions in however small 
quantities. All tlie grocers, greengrocers, butchers, are shut. Many 
live on nothing but rice. One day a cartload of fish and eggs arrived 
for us; contrary to all right, they were commandeered and sent to 
Germany. Another day there arrived, through the Committee, for the 
town 55,000 francs worth of meat. A series of vexatious proceedings 
stopped it and left it to rot where it lay. The potatoes here and in the 
neighbourhood are being spoilt ; the Germans will not let them be brought 

in and our strength is diminishing I am not telling you this 

to make you pity us, but to show you that even physically we are not 
strong enough for the moral tortures which we endure, deprived of all 
comforts, of all news of you. So the mortality is increasing alarm- 
ingly, 45 per cent, in a population reduced by half. Numerous cases of 
madness in certain districts are not to be wondered at. We are at the 
end of our strength; one has to be constantly on the watch to defend and 
help the poor people. We only keep going by a constant strain of spirit 
and strength. Up till now I have written each week, but I am losing 
heart for it, and I think I am going to resign myself to waiting for an 
answer. Communicate this scrap, too, to everybody. 

(Signed) D." 



The following 16 letters have been communicated by the Ministry of War, and the 
originals are preserved in that department. 

Annexe 14. 
Letter from X, at Lille, 1st May, 1916, to Mine L. G., at Paris-Passy, 

" This week has been terrible for our unhappy town : 1,200 to 1,500 
people have been carried oU every night, escorted by soldiers with 
£xed bayonets and bands playing, machine guns at the corners of the 
streets, principally girls and young women of all sorts, also men from 
15 to 50, sent off promiscuously in cattle trucks with wooden benches, 
for unknown destinations and employments, nominally to work on the 
land. You can imagine the despair and agony of their relations. We 
learn this afternoon that the horrible business is over and our quarter 
has been spared. 

I had come to sleep at home for the first time in two years, in the 
attempt to save my maid. I am at last going to sleep without the 
fear of being wakened in the middle of the night to go and open the door 
to an invasion of soldiers. There will be nobody left excejjt mothers with 
children under 14, or old men. In the middle of all this the Town Hall 
was burnt out one night, as if by magic. The deported people, however, 
showed truly French courage; they kept back their tears, and the trains 
left the station to the sound of the Marseillaise. The worse things are, 
the nearer to deliverance it seems to us we are coming." 



Annexe 15. 

Letter from M. X., at Lille, to M. F., at Paris. 

" We have seen our streets invaded in the middle of the night by 
hordes of soldiers, with fixed bayonets and machine guns (how shameful !), 
tearing girls of all ages and lads of fourteen from their mothers' arms, 
without pity for these mothers who, on their knees, implored their 



23 

conquerors for mercy, and all these unfortunate creatures massed indis- 
criminately with the dregs of the population, packed into commandeered 
trams, sent off like troops of slaves to an unknown destination. What 
impotent hatred for the moment, but later what responsibility for the 
higher authorities, from the private to the general ! Tell all this to our 
son." 



Annexe 16. 

Letter, dated 2Gth April, 1916, from X., at Lille, addressed to Mme S., 

at Versailles. 

"People like us carry on fairly well from day to day in the matter of 
provisions, and those who are suffering would hardly admit it, now that 
it is being used as a pretext for a measure which turns the three towns 
upside-down, namely, the deportation of the citizens. I say pretext, 
for there are sure to be other reasons — to aggravate us, to carry out noisy 
reprisals, for they know quite well that we shall get them, and to lay 
their hands on the male population from 17 to 55, which would be 
especially explicable if they want to prepare for their retreat. But why 
are they taking women in the proportion of 20 to 30 per cent., as far 
as one can see from the last few days ? Is it for agricultural work, as they 
say? Is it to form concentration camps? Is it to repopulate the 
Ardennes region which is said to be depopulated, or to have all the 
remaining civilians from here to oppose our advance down there? 
I also think that they may have embarked on this vile business through 
sheer stupidity : the order comes from above, the subordinates, includ- 
ing the Governor, carry it out; the protests of the Mayors and the 
Bishop have been rejected. The decision, so they say, is irrevocable; 
the slaves have nothing to do but to keep silent. We are in their hands. 
The first operation took place on the night from Good Friday to the 
Saturday; pause for Easter; the second took place last night, and it will 
go on. You know that each house has to have a list posted of the inhabi- 
tants. We must be at home, there is no means of getting out of it since 
the identity cards. I did not see the proceedings of tonight, but the 
ceremonies must have been the same as before. The streets guarded 
at both ends by troops, sent on purpose a week ago from Cambrai or 
elsewhere, machine guns in place, 10 to 15 men halt before the house 
with fixed bayonets, two enter with a non-commissioned officer and the 
officer, who decides and chooses those who are to go. These have from 
20 minutes to an hour to come down into the street with a nominal 
30 kgm. of luggage, and are marched to some place — the church of 
Fives, the school of St. Joseph — and from there to the station for the 
east. In the morning the women cried out as they passed : " We are 
going to Belgium. It is not to cultivate the soil of France." If they 
want to carry us off into Germany before the advance of our troops let 
them say so. But the worst is this uncertainty. I do not want to 
overload the picture, it is dark enough. It is enough for you to know that 
since the beginning of this raid they have carried off young girls; that 
that still seems to be part of their system; that, as a matter of fact, 
these deportations of young girls were frequent the first night, although 
they have, it is said, sent a certain number of them back from the station, 
and this has been done again to-night. Think of the terror of the 
fathers and mothers, of the distress of daughters of good families, who 
do not know what is happening, of the horrible situation of those who 
see their dear ones go, and if, as I think, the people of the upper classes 



24 

escape these risks almost entirely, liow wretclied is the lot of the respect- 
able people of the lower classes, who have nothing but their respectability, 
to have it so exposed. The mothers with children under 14 are left. 
What more can they do with us, except sell us in the public squares of 
German towns? " 



Annexe 17. 

Letter addressed to Mine D., in Paris, by X., in Lille, 3rd May, 1916. 

*' Our Eastertide was very miserable. They have conceived the idea 
of transplanting part of the population into abandoned or half-abandoned 
villages in the invaded parts of France to work in the fields. It was 
done in the best military way. They took men, women, lads, girls of 
all classes. Exemption for women with small children. Each morning 
they operated in a district at 3 a.m. The victims were packed together 
half an hour afterwards at the St. Sauveur station. They did not come 
to us. There were, as you can imagine, some distressing scenes. 
Mme C. H., who had gone back to sleep at F. in order to obey the procla- 
mation, was taken, but was released twelve hours later, having had the 
good luck to meet at the station an important personage from the factory, 
who was one of the American Committee. I was not molested." 



Annexe 18. 

Letter addressed to Mine R. D., in Paris, by X., in Lille, 2nd May, 1916. 

*' But this material part (the high price of food) is nothing to the 
agony that we had to endure the whole of Easter week, owing to the 
military deportation of women, by night, to go we know not where. 
You can understand the revolt and indignation of decent people — 
to bring up children in order to have them carried off in this 
inhuman fashion. The town completely plunged in grief, that was our 
Easter week; this is far more terrible than shortage of food. No one 
slept for a week, always wondering, ' Will it be to-night ? ' At 3 in 
the morning one heard the patrols, a regular deportation of slaves. 
These odious measures will, we hope, attract attention to us, and we 
shall be avenged for these barbarous proceedings." 



Annexe 19. 

Letter from X., at Lille, dated the 7th May, 1916, and addressed to 

Madame B., in Paris. 

'* Horrible affair at Lille, tell it everywhere; the deportation of 6,000 
women and 6,000 men; for eight nights at two in the morning, districts 
invested by the 64th Regiment (spread it in France that it came from 
Verdun), forcibly dragged off girls of 18 and women up to 45; 2,000 a 
night. Herded in a factory; sorting out during the day and carried off 
in the evening; scattered from Seclin to Sedan in abandoned villages, 
farms, &c. ; cook and wash for the soldiers, replacing orderlies sent to 
the front; working on the land, especially servants and working girls, 
few girls of good family. Rue Royale, hardly any servants left; 
crowded in with men of all ages without distinction; horrible immorality; 
some German officers refused to obey, some soldiers were crying, the 
rest brutal, Ernest W. carried off', his brother C. was one day in the 



25 

fortress for having protested, sons have remained; X. is near Hirson. 
Mile B. and Mile de B. carried off; wanted to follow some poor girls 
who were their protegees; came to my house at four in the morning, no 
one taken; no one came to Iso. 14. Protests by the Mayors and the sous- 
prefets. Useless. Same operations at Tourcoing (6,000) and at E,oubaix 
(4,000). The town is in despair." 



Annexe 20. 

Letter frovi J., the Sth May, 1916, to Madame V ., at Berck-Plage. 

" M. C. J., — It is only a fortnight since my last letter and here I am 
again. My e:^cuse is that you and your friends, perhaps, want news of 
the forcible deportation of part of our population, and that I can reassure 
you about the fate of those who are dear to you. The operation went on 
the whole of Easter week. Except the centre of the town, all the districts 
suffered. They carried off nearly 10,000 inhabitants, men of 55 and lads 
of 10, women who were keeping shop and young girls who were torn 
away from their parents, with only this restriction that those under 
20 years of age were accompanied by some member of their family; 
it was very sad, and the Germans will never purge themselves of such 
conduct. Many of the soldiers were in despair at the duty which waa 
imposed on them; the old men of the Landsturm may have blushed at it, 
but the young non-commissioned officers carried it out with real Prussian 
thoroughness. 

As you can imagine there were moving scenes at the moment of 
separation ; the soldiers led off their victims to the St. Sauveur 
Station, and their parents could not accompany them. They stayed there 
till the evening when cattle trucks, with planks for seats, carried them 
away. They started with cries of " Yive la France," and to the tune of 
the equally forbidden Marseillaise. This is the first time since the occu- 
pation that this song and this cry have been heard. In spite of their 
misery those deported showed a firm bearing in the face of the enemy. 

A small number of those deported is in the villages round Orchies, the 
rest are on the Aisue, in the Ardennes, and in Belgium. Very few seem 
capable of working on the land. You cannot make farm hands cut of 
clerks and young girls and shop girls, of dressmakers and factory hands. 
We shall not know till later the true reason of these deportations, but the 
pretexts given will not hold water. 

The vehement protests of the authorities, perhaps, helped to reduce 
the expected niimber of victims, perhaps they will help to get the women 
back; we hope so without counting on it too much. Meanwhile, the 
whole city is in consternation. 

As far as the people who affect j^ou, or whom I know, here is my news. 
At your cousin's house, Rue X., the Germans did not even appear; at your 
aunt's everything passed off quietly, they contented themselves with 
asking your uncle's age and that was all. At Madame C.'s and Madame 
B.'s no one was taken, they are all on the favoured list. On the other 
hand, on the list of the unlucky ones you must put your employer's cook 
and maid, our comrades V., C, R., the engineer F. and his wife. 

My baker has kept his daughter, but the poor child had been so 
afraid of possible deportation that she has been ill for the last week. 
]S"umbers of people besides are reported to be still in bed in consequence 
of their anxiety or of the despair caused by separation. 

Roubaix, Tourcoing had the same fate as us, but the communes in 
the neighbourhood were spared, such as Loos, Haubourdin. La 



26 

Madeleine, Lambersart, &c. E.'s wife was not molested. In short, 
your family and tlie families of your school friends, with whom 
you are in touch over there, have come ofit all right, and that is 
what I wanted to write and tell you at once. There was no trouble 
either at Madame S.'s or Madame G.'s. 

Beside these deportations nothing counts, and I ought to end my letter 
here; but here are a few words more on our situation." 



Annexe 21. 

Letter signed R., not dated, and addressed to Madame B., in Paris. 

"My dear C, 

I suppose the people in France already know of all the trials through 
which we are passing, each more painful than the last. We have come 
out of this last one again scot free, and have stayed here, both of us, 
till a new order comes. 

We spent a terrible Easter week here; this is what happened. On 
Wednesday the 19th of this month, a placard warning the population 
that there were going to be deportations by order in the invaded terri- 
tory, that each person was to furnish himself with household utensils 
and had the right to 30 kilogrammes of luggage. Ton can imagine 
the panic in the town. 

Two days of waiting passed and at last, on the night of Friday 
21st to Saturday 22nd, the streets of one district were blocked by 
the police at 3 in the morning and the alarm given in each house, 
with the order to keep in the passage with all luggage. They had 
brought for this vile duty soldiers, or rather brutes, from another 
locality simply in order that there should not be any friendliness 
or weakness towards families who would have begged for mercy. Then, 
according to the number of people living in the house, the brute made 
his choice. They carried off girls of the family, servants, men of all sorts 
and of all ages. They attacked chiefly the working class, which unfor- 
tunately always suifer the most; lads and girls of good family who were 
caught in the raid were released ; the same was the case with people 
seriously ill, but for them application had to be made and often they 
were put into the train before exemption was granted. 

From the 22nd to the 29th, inclusive, 9,890 were deported; a reprieve 
was granted for Easter day. 

All these poor people wondered where and why they were being 
taken av7a5^ ; there were, I can assure you, sad pictures, but always the 
cheerful side as well, for one heard groups singing, some patriotic songs, 
others popular tunes, and as they were kept at the station the whole day 
some groups played cards, while waiting for their departure. One could 
even say that the greater number were cheerful, or rather put on a good 
face against their misfortune, to the bewilderment of the Boches, who 
were amazed to see the French character not recoiling before any 
sacrifice. 

In spite of that, it is painful to be at their mercy like this, for every- 
thing about them is false, and one wonders what is the object of this 
deportation and in what state of health and morale these people will 
come back. 

Then, as a climax to our misfortunes, on Easter night, a fire, 
due to some unknown cause, entirely destroyed the Town Hall ; for- 
tunately the essential things were saved, but what a tragic night ! " 



27 



Annexe 22. 



Letter of the 9th May, 1916, addressed to Mine Jules T., at Versailles, 

by X., in Lille. 

" It began on Saturday before Easter day, at 3 in the morning, 
at Fives, for Lille, at La Marliere, for Tourcoing, and for Eoubaix I 
do not know in what district. A regiment arrived for this duty, the 
marked streets were blocked with machine guns and armed soldiers, and 
men, women, lads, young girls from 14 or 15 years of age, were carried 
off indiscriminately, but to their greater misfortune the mothers with 
children below 14 were exempted. 

During the whole of Easter week 40 to 60 thousand people were 
carried off from the three towns, district by district. Slavery re-estab- 
lished for the French under the occupation. These poor slaves were 
crowded anyhow into cattle trucks, men and women together, and sent 
in unknown directions. We have heard that some landed at Orchies, 
Templeuve, Hirson, Sedan, Lens, some to work on the land, on the 
roads, at munitions and at trenches. Women, especially the servants, 
kept to wait on the officers, to replace the orderlies. 

All the districts were visited, except the district of La Grand' Place, 
Rue Nationale, Boulevard de la Liberte; shop girls, clerks, men and 
women. 

The first days they carried off girls of the aristocracy, so their 
mothers in despair tried to accompany them, but they released them 
generally; in the schools, some boys carried off too, but few. When 
people had officers living in their houses, these often interposed to get 
them leave to stay. It is terribly sad here, the bombardment, bombs, 
the explosion, were nothing to the agony of this week; it ended with the 
St. Maurice district. Monseigneur, the Mayor, the Director of Provision- 
ing, all protested against these deportations (the pretext given for them 
was the difficulty of feeding the population because of the English). The 
Germans have never troubled to feed us, and provisioning has never been 
so well assured, except for meat." 



Annexe 23. 

Letter signed " Louise," dated the 9th May, addressed for M. E. cjo M. 
le Chanoine D., St. Oiner, Pas-de-Calais. 

*' Dear Papa, 

On Thursday, 20th April, placards were put up in the evening — 

* The attitude of England makes the provisioning of the population 

* more and more difficult. In order to lessen the misery, the population 

* will be deported. By Order.' The following night the military began 
their brutal work in Fives. At 3 o'clock in the morning there was a 
knocking at the doors, an officer came in and chose the people who were 
to go. A soldier was on sentry duty, with fixed bayonet, at the door. 
A few minutes were given for packing. Machine guns were placed at 
intervals ; the streets were full of patrols and blocked by soldiers ; fixed 
bayonets everywhere. They collected the people in the church of the 
district, and they were all sent off promiscuously in cattle trucks. - 
What morals, what hygiene ! Mothers with young children alone got 
exemption. As we all three came under the conditions, we packed our 
luggage in great depression. Monseigneur and the Mayor courageously 



28 

had several conversations with the General ; as Monseigneur was ener- 
getically standing up for the population, he was answered with these 
courteous words: "You, Bishop, be quiet and go!" The Germans 
operated by police districts; Rue I., our old street, was dealt witli on the 
night of Easter Sunday to Monday. People were sleeping peacefully, 
for the night before they had been told that a despatch from Jieutrals 
had put an end to this disgraceful state of affairs. The Miles J., who 
had been carried off with their brother and their maid, have been 
released. Madame L.'s maid has been taken, and, generally speaking, 
all servants ; as our street is in a different district, it was only dealt with 
on the night Wednesday to Thursday. Fortunately, before reaching us 
the Germans had made enormous raids at Wazemmes, and they were 
less unpleasant. Mother stayed in bed, saying she was ill. A. and 
I received the officer, who authorised us to stay. I think the picture of 
father in uniform, which we have had in the dining room since the 
separation, saved me. I said I was the daughter of an officer of whom 
we had had no news since the battle of the Marne. It was pretty terrify- 
ing, this military visit. We thank God every day for leading your steps 
to Naerd. You would certainly have been carried off, both of you. 

The Germans realise that by this disgraceful act they have set an 
indelible stain on their flag. Several officers and soldiers are imprisoned 
in the fortress for having refused the duty. On the other hand a Boche, 
a doctor of philosophy and of political jurisprudence, a clergyman, told 
a gentleman that they would recoil from nothing for the safety of the 
Empire. Is this Satan's last blow, or are we to expect fresh crimes? 

On the night of Easter Sunday to Monday, fire broke out in the Town 
Hall. A short circuit, it is said. The Germans were pleased, thinking 
they saw all their requisition vouchers, &c., disappearing in this huge 
furnace. A great many things are saved, but of the Town Hall there 
only remains the tower and the four walls. We were uncertain about 
hiring a safe, and did not do it. An embargo has been put a second time 
on the banks." 



Annexe 24. 

Letter signed C, Lille, dated 1st May, 1916, addressed to Mme A. A., 

at La Tranche (Isere). 

" For the moment I am well enough in spite of the annoyance 
caused daily by these dirty dogs, and in spite of the present diffi- 
culties of provisioning, which will soon end in complete famine if 
this goes on . . . About Easter, on the Saturday before, the Boches 
proceeded in all districts in the town, except the centre, forcibly to deport 
a certain number of inhabitants — men, women, girls, lads, without dis- 
tinction of social status. At 4 o'clock in the morning they blocked the 
streets and the regiment charged with this work, the 64th, hammered on 
each door with the butts of their rifles. Then an officer went round and 
pointed out the people in the house who were to go. About 8,000 persons 
were carried off like this and no one knows exactly where they were sent 
or what work they are to do. To-day about 40 women have come back. 
You can imagine the effect of this hooligan measure. The same thing 
was done in the neighbouring towns and villages. With the Germans 
we must no longer be astonished at anything." 



29 



Annexe 25. 

Letter iinsigned, from Lille, to M. M ., at Itennes, IQth May, 1916. 

** In the last forcible deportation none of onr friends were compelled to 
go except our old housekeeper and her daughter (the wife of the police- 
man). Thej'- have come back, as M. is not 17 and is a delicate girl. 
As you must know, we have to submit to all sorts of humiliations and 
petty persecutions, if not worse." 



Annexe 26. 

Letter unsigned, from Lille, Sth May, 1916, addressed to M. B., at Vigan. 

" The men in grey made raids and carried off men, women and 
girls to send them nominally to the Ardennes; 200 pupils of Institut 
Turgot were carried off, little girls of 15 . . . The number is pxit at 
20,000 for the towns of Roubaix and Tourcoing." 



Annexe 27. 

Letter from X., Lille, May, 1916, to Mvie Ch. F., at Wiviereux. 

" At this moment households almost everywhere are upset; deportation 
of men and women above the age of 15, disgraceful in point of morals 
and cruelty. The indignation of certain mothers made the business a 
little less bad ; we try to think it is a secret beginning of retreat ; we 
always keep before us that gleam of hope of deliverance. In our families 
we were spared; the common people were especially affected." 



Annexe 28. 

Letter from P. and from A., at Rouhaix {20t7i May, 1916), to the family 
M., at St. Germain-eii-Laye. 

** At this moment there is great excitement here. All our towns are full 
of disquieting rumours as a result of some deportations of men and lads, 
as well as of some women and girls. They say that this might become 
general. A first proclamation had announced that families out of work 
might go and settle in the country in the Department of the Nord, in the 
districts where they could make a living more easily. Some days later, 
about the 5th of April, a second proclamation announced : — ' Workmen 
can find healthy and congenial work at Gommagnies and Herbignies, in 
the Yal district, 60 kilometers behind the front. It is a question of cut- 
ting medium-sized trees in the Mormal Eorest. . . . Wages, 3 fr. 
a day, plus board and lodging.' Apparently hardly anyone offered him- 
self. A few days later, in Roubaix and Tourcoing, young men, women 
and girls were arrested in the street and in their houses without any reason 
being given. It is said the arrests were especially of people who had 
previously been convicted of smuggling potatoes, or of failing to appear 
at roll calls, &c. For we are bound hand and foot, no question of passes 
of any sort, even to villages near by, nothing except for Lille, Roubaix 
and Tourcoing. 

It is said that all these people were sent to Sedan, Mezieres and Vervins, 
to form agricultural colonies to work on the land; feeling grew even 
stronger when the rumour got about on Saturday that a score of German 



30 

employes were working at the town hall on the recent census lists of the 
population, with a view to taking haphazard 25,000 people in Lille, 
15,000 in Eoubaix, 10,000 in Tourcoing, three-fifths of whom are to be 
women and girls and two-fifths men from 17 to 50. People refuse to 
believe it ; it is contrary to international law ; but one cannot be wholly 
sceptical, for they are said in several factories, Lepers-Duduve, C. & F. 
riipo, Veuve Fouan et fils, to have prepared some of the store rooms to 
house people, with lavatories for men and for women and a surgery for 
medical examination, &c. The most improbable rumours are current; 
that it is a case of reprisals by the German Government for the English 
blockade, or for a similar act of deportation by the French Government in 
the conquered German Colonies, or that it is a scheme for repopulating 
too sparsely-inhabited districts, either with a view to the harvest or as a 
protection against bombardment by the Allies. Whatever it is, all 
families are in an agony. Indignant protests have been sent by our 
leading men, the Mayor of Lille and Monseigneur Charost. The strict 
enforcement of this measure seems provisionally to be suspended. Let 
us hope they will get back to a more sound appreciation of international 
law. ... As regards the deportations of men, are they meaning to 
take those of military age? No one knows." 



The two following letters were received and communicated to the Foreign Office 
by M. Boudenoot, Senator: — 

Annexe 29. 

Extract from a letter from Roubaix. 

Uth April, 1916. 

*' Now deportations are beginning. Two thousand men and lads have 
gone from our town, and that is not all. At first they were taken in the 
streets, then in their own homes, only among the common people up till 
now. 

I have seen troops of them starting off, and I assure you it is heart- 
rending. The women throw parcels to their husbands, brothers, sons 
as they pass. These latter are generally resolute, some of them were 
singing. 

It was the sending off of women and girls whom they had hunted 
out that roused the strongest feeling. You can realise the state 
of mind of parents seeing young girls of 16 to 20 going off amongst lads 
of all conditions, no one knows where. 

In our circles mothers are trembling for their grown sons. The men 
are packing their belongings in case they have to go. 

We are in an atmosphere of misery, owing to these new measures, but 
in spite of it we keep up our courage and our confidence." 



Annexe 30. 
Extract from a letter from a mother to her son, aged 17. 

April Uth, 1916. 

*' I used to deplore your absence, but now I thank heaven that you are 
away. Our invaders are embarking now on a terrible man-hunt. I 
have seen boys of your age led off in herds with grown men for an 
unknown destination. It is heartrending. 

It is said that this is only the beginning, and all the men are making 
their preparations.'* 



31 

Annexe 31. 

Letter from Mine D., from Lille (Nord), to her husband, M. D., at 

WiTnereux. 

May Uth, 1916. 
(Communicated to the Miuister of the Interior) : 

** My dearest J., 

Our friends who have been deported will have given you recent 
news of us and a number of details of our secluded life, of the advantages 
of our situation, the benefits conferred by German administration, and 
the kindness of the authorities. 

Since their departure we have witnessed a humanitarian measure 
which consists in dividing up families, taking here a daughter, there 
a mother, there a father, or leaving an octogenarian of either sex without 
support or help, in order to permit the people " voluntarily " deported 
to get provisions better, and to lead a more normal life by "planting" 
potatoes, as they call it. Nothing that has happened has made me so 
indignant as this infamous proceeding, criminal in its consequences and 
in its possibilities, carried out under the cloak of humanity. These 
families are in tears over these forced separations. Parents have lost 
their reason at seeing their daughter or their daughters going off into the 
unknown, which is so full of dangers and snares. It has caused the 
death of others, and as for me I have thanked heaven for all these months 
of separation, which have at least spared me this last agony, alas ! such 
justifiable agony. 

The town is in the depths of depression since the deportations, and "for 
the last ten days my mind has been blank, and my heavy heart has been 
feeling all the despair which I have witnessed. I have had to give 
consolation and help; poor X. has been carried off, we do not yet know 
where and under what conditions. All France, all nations must be 
told of this fresh crime, with its cunning preparation, its cloak of lies, 
its hidden rascality. Many of those who carried out the work were 
disgusted with their task. All I hope is that their minds may be 
enlightened by it, and that they may understand what it means. 

As usual I was spared, though I held myself in readiness to go since 
any one might be chosen." 



Annexe 32. 

To Monsieur Raymond Poincare, President of the French Republio^ 

Paris. 
Sir, 

"We have the honour to express again our most sincere gratitude to 
you for your most kind reception a few days ago of the deputation which 
went with feelings of legitimate emotion to inform you of the deporta- 
tion of lads and girls, which the German authorities have just carried 
out in the invaded districts. 

We have collected some details on the subject from the lips of an 
honourable and trustworthy person, who succeeded in leaving Tourcoing 
about ten days ago; we think it our duty to bring these details to your 
notice by reproducing textually the declarations which have been made 
to us : — 

" These deportations began towards Easter. The Germans announced 
that the inhabitants of Roubaix, Tourcoing, Lille, &c., were going to be 
transported into French districts where their provisioning would be 
easier, 

9288 C 



32 

" At night, at about two o'clock in the morning', a whole district o£ 
the town was invested by the troops of occupation. To each house was 
distributed a printed notice, of which we give below an exact repro- 
duction, preserving the style and spelling. {Ann. 2.) 

" The inhabitants so warned were to hold themselves ready to depart 
an hour and a half after the distribution of the proclamation. 

" Each family, drawn up outside the house, was examined by an officer, 
who pointed out hajDhazard the persons who were to go. No words can 
express the barbarity of this proceeding nor describe the heartrending 
scenes which occurred : young men and girls took a hasty farewell of 
their parents — a farewell hurried by the German soldiers who were 
executing the infamous task, — rejoined the group of those who were 
going and found themselves in the middle of the street, surrounded by 
other soldiers with fixed bayonets. 

" Tears of despair on the part of parents and children so ruthlessly 
separated did not soften the hearts of the brutal Germans. Sometimes 
however, a more kind-hearted officer yielded to too great a despair, and 
did not choose all the persons whom he should — by the terms of his 
instructions — have separated. 

" These girls and lads were taken in trams to factories, where they were 
numbered and labelled like cattle and grouped to form convoys. In 
these factories they remained twelve, twenty-four, or thirty-six hours 
until a train was ready to remove them. 

" The deportation began with the villages of Roncq, Halluin, &c., then 
Tourcoing and E-oubaix. In the towns the Germans proceeded by 
districts. 

" In all about 30,000 persons are said to have been carried off up to the 
present. This monstrous operation has taken eight to ten days to 
accomplish. It is feared, unfortunately, that it may begin again soon. 
The departures took place in goods trucks to the sound of the ' Marseil- 
laise.' 

" The reason given by the German authorities is a humanitarian( ?) one. 
They have put forward the following pretexts : provisioning is going to 
break down in the large towns in the north and in their suburbs, whereas 
in the Ardennes the feeding is easy and cheap. 

" It is known from the young men and girls, since sent back to their 
families for reasons of health, that in the Department of the Ardennes 
the victims are lodged in a terrible manner, in disgraceful promiscuity; 
they are compelled to work in the fields. It is unnecessary to say that 
the inhabitants of our towns are not trained to such work. The Germans 
pay them 1'50 m. But there are complaints of insufficient food. 

" They were very badly received in the Ardennes. The Germans had 
told the Ardennais that these were ' volunteers ' who were coming to 
work, and the Ardennais proceeded to receive them with many insults, 
which only ceased when the forcible deportation, of which they were the 
victims, became known. 

" Feeling ran especially high in our towns. Never has so iniquitous a 
measure been carried out. The Germans have shown all the barbarity of 
slave drivers. 

" The families so scattered are in despair and the morale of the whole 
population is gravely affected. Boys of 14, schoolboys in knickerbockers, 
young girls of 15 to 16 have been carried off, and the despairing protests 
of their parents failed to touch the hearts of the German officers or rather 
executioners. 

" One last detail: The persons so deported are allowed to write home 
once a month, that is to say, even less often than military prisoners." 



33 

Such are the declarations which we have collected and which, without 
commentary, confirm in an even more striking way the facts which we 
took the liberty of laying before you. 

We do not wish here to enter into the question of provisioning in the 
invaded districts ; others, better qualified than ourselves, give you, as we 
know, frequent information. It is enough for us to describe in a few 
words the situation from this aspect: — 

The provisioning is very difficult; food, apart from that supplied by 
the Spanish-American Committee, is very scarce and terribly dear . 
People are hungry and the provisioning is inadequate by at least a half; 
our population is suffering constant privations, and is growing weaker 
noticeably. The death-rate too has increased considerably. 

Sometimes inhabitants of the invaded territories speak with a note of 
discouragement, crying apparently: "We are forsaken by everyone!" 
We, on the other hand, are hopeful, Monsieur le President, that the 
energetic intervention on the part of Neutrals, which the French Govern- 
ment is sure to evoke, will soon bring to an end these measures which 
rouse the wrath of all to whom humanity is not an empty word .... 

With all confidence in the sympathy of the Government we venture 
to address a new and pressing appeal to your generous kindness and far- 
reaching influence in the name of those who are suffering on behalf of the 
whole country. 

With renewed expression of our gratitude. 

We have the honour to subscribe ourselves, 

Pour le Comity des int^rets economiques de Roubaix-Tourcoing : 

Le Prhident^ 

Sign6: TOULEMONDE, 

Membre de la Chambre de commerce de Ronbaix, 
Membre du Comite consultatif de I'intendance. 

Pour la Fraternelle des Combattants Roubaisiens : 

Le President, 

CHARLES DROULERS, 

Docteur en droit, 

President de la Societe de geographic de Roubaix. 

Pour la Fraternelle des prisonniers de guerre de Roubaix-Tourcoing : 

Le Prhident, 
Sign6: LEON HATINE-DAZIN. 

Pour la Famille du soldat Tourquenois : 
Le Vice-Prhident, 
LOUIS LORTHIOIS. 
Membre de la Chambre de commerce de Tourcoing. 

Paris, 15th June, 1916. 
3, rue Taitbout. 



>288 



2 



35 



AMEIE B. 



DEPOSITIONS CONCEENING LABOUR ENFOECED ON THE 
POPULATIONS OF THE INYADED DEPARTMENTS. 

{Only a selection of the depositions given in the French Yellow Book 
is reproduced. The original numbering is preserved.) 

The following documents do not, like the preceding ones, relate to a single incident. 
Their principal interest lies in the multiplicity and variety of the violations of inter- 
national law, carried out methodically and incessantly since the beginning of the occu- 
pation, in all parts of the Departments occupied. They are extracts for the most part 
from depositions made on oath by French subjects who had returned to France after 
having been deported from the invaded departments, before the Justices of the Peace of 
the districts where they found asylum. 

However important the declarations may be a3 regards ill-treatment of all kinds to 
which the French have been subjected in the invaded districts, of which the civilised 
world will know one day, answers are given here only to questions dealing with the 
labour imposed upon civilians in the occupied territories. As stated above, no special 
question upon this point had been foreseen in the examination, and the replies were given 
spontaneously by the witnesses, mostly in answer to the question : " Did the witness 
receive good or bad treatment " or under the heading : " General remarks." 

It did not appear possible to give the names of the witnesses or of the localities whence 
they had been deported, but the original documents of which the. following are duly 
certified copies, are preserved at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 

It has seemed the best plan to classify these depositions so as to bring out the various 
violations of the laws of nations or of humanity which they prove. 

1. The means of compulsion employed. 

2. Social position of the workers. 

3. Age and sex of the workers. 

4. Duration of the work. 

5. Compulsion to work away from home. 

6. Transportation of interned civilians from Germany to work away from home. 

7. Absence of remuneration. 

8. Diet of the workers. 

9. Object of the work. 

10. Forced collaboration in military operations. 

11. Work in connection with military operations. 

The classification is only made for the convenience of the reader and many deposition 
placed under one head may relate also to one or more of the other heads. 



37 



I. 

MEANS or COMPULSION EMPLOYED. 

The means employed by the German Authorities 
to constrain the inhabitants of the French territory 
in their occupation to work under their orders have 
been various : threats, violence, shooting, intern- 
ment, deportation either of individuals or of 
groups. 

It is noteworthy that in a certain number of 
cases 'the German authorities tried to disguise the 
compulsion by obtaining from the French people 
in their power, either verbally or in writing, con- 
tracts of sorts for work. These tliey then repre- 
sented as voluntary and of free consent. A perusal 
of the following extracts will show the value of 
these contracts — sometimes obtained by fraud — 
deception as to the nature of the work or as to its 
destination (Nos. 226, 241), or as to the locality 
(Nos. 95, 119), as to the duration or payment 
(Nos. 153, 159) — sometimes obtained by violence, 
threats, arrest, internment, blows, starvation, &c. 
(Nos. 34, 126, 225, 226, 237, 239). Sometimes 
civilians had to sign these contracts after being 
formed into brigades, transported far from their 
homes and employed for a long time in all kinds 
of labour when they were bound down in conditions 
which excluded all liberty (Nos. 9G, 226) and where 
they could not break the contract (No. 54b). 



38 



Annexe 34. 

M. Pierre L , aged 20, turner, deported from B (Nord) : — 

" At the present time the military authority is endeavouring- to recruit 
civilian artizans, who are to be put to work on the fortifications of Lille. 

They will be lodged at C and at G and will receive 5 francs a 

day wages. As nobody has borne forward voluntarily, the military 
authorities have warned the young men of the 1915, 1916 and 1917 
classes that they will be sent as prisoners of war to Germany if they 
do not agree to work for the benefit of the German Administration." 



Annexe 35. 
Mile Argentine A , aged 27, workwoman, deported from B- 



(Somme) : — "The Germans forced us to work without remuneration. 
We received neither money nor food. . . . The German heads of 
departments and subordinate officers were in charge of us and obliged 
us to work whenever requisitioned. If we did not obey their orders, 
they arrested us and put us on bread and water. . . . We supported 
ourselves as we best could, principally on vegetables, especially potatoes. 
Sometimes we received help from charitable people. . . . Emile 

B- , aged 16, was severely beaten with a stick, and kicked and cuffed 

because he refused to work." 



Annexe 37. 
Mme J. R , aged 25, maker of paper-bags, deported from S- 



(Aisne) : — "All we women were subjected to inspection every five days 
like women of the town. Those who did not accomplish their task 
(namely, sewing 25 sacks) were beaten by the Germans, especially with 
a cat-o'-nine-tails. This ill-treatment was mostly inflicted by a sergeant 
named Franz; I cannot give the name of his regiment. There were 
four to look after us. For the least thing the Germans used to insult 

and threaten us. . . . One girl, J. G , of S (I cannot give 

her exact address), was beaten with the cat and had a jug of water 
poured over her head because she asked for something, to eat. A certain 

A (I cannot give any further description of her) was so severely 

beaten that she was taken to the hospital, and we did not see her again." 



Annexe 52. 

Mme M. J , aged 34, embroiderer, deported from F 

(Meurthe-et-Moselle) : — " They obliged me to do fatigue work, consisting 
of cleaning the road and grubbing up potatoes for them. One day, the 
work being behindhand, the Germans hanged the Mayor to a tree by 
cords iDassed under his arms. They kept him in that position for about 
an hour in the square where the church is. Then they fastened two 
other Councillors to posts on either side of the Mayor. Only their arms 
were tied to the post." 



39 



Annexe 54b. 

Extract from a Note Verbale of the Spanish Embassy at Berlin, dated 
the V^th April, 1916, transmitting to the French Embassy at Berne 
a Note Verbale of the Imperial Department of Foreign Affairs, dated 
the 6th April, 1916. 

In reply to the note verbale of tlie 2nd February last, tbe Depart- 
ment of Foreign Affairs lias the honour to inform the Royal Embassy 
of Spain that the detention of the person mentioned, Eugene Muylaert, 
of Lille, was ordered by the German military authorities because he 
refused to perform the work for which he had contracted with the 
authorities. Moreover, by his insubordinate conduct he induced a certain 
number of workmen to cease working for the German Authorities. 



41 



The State may utilise the labour of prisoners 
of war according to their rank and capacity. Their 
tasks shall not be excessive. {Hague Convention, 
\%th October, 1907, Art 6.) 

This rule, which relates to prisoners of war, 
applies with stronger force to the civil population 
who ought not to be compelled to work. 



II. 

SOCIAL POSITION OF THE WORKERS. 

III. 
AGE AND SEX OF THE WORKERS. 

ly. 

NIGHT WORK AND WORK UNDER FIRE. 



42 

II. 

SOCIAL POSITION OF THE WORKERS. 

Annexe 55. 

Mme Camille D , aged 28, no profession (her husband is a con- 
tractor for j)nblic and industrial works), deported from C (Meurthe- 

et-Moselle) : — " (The other members of the family) were not ill-treated, 
but were exposed to continual annoyances; she and her grandmother 
(aged 85) were obliged to act as servants to the Germans, who threatened 
them at every turn and made them do all sorts of humiliating and 
degrading work." 



III. 

AGE AND SEX OF THE WORKERS. 

Annexe 69. 

M. P , aged 62, farmer, deported from M (Meuse) : — "They 

never struck me, but I was terrorised; in spite of my age I had, during 
the whole of the winter of 1914-1915, to do fatigue work for them, 
escorted and watched by the soldiers of the Kommandantur, No. 1, of 
the 17th Corps. The Germans had pillaged everything and they sold 
back to us, for our subsistence, 108 grammes a day of damaged rye-flour, 
for which they made us pay at the rate of 75 francs the 100 kilos." 



Annexe 86. 

M. L. , aged 54, cloth-embroiderer, deported from L (Aisne) : — 

** At the beginning of August, 1914, I had gone to L with my 

wife to carry out some work on my property. On the 1st September, 
1914, a great number of Germans passed through. We took them for 
English soldiers. In the evening they were drunk. They spread terror, 
breaking the windows, pillaging, destroying what they could not swallow, 
leaving their filth everywhere. An officer wanted to violate the 
confectioner's wife. The woman escaped, and the officer in his drunken 
fury broke everything in the shop. 

" During the occupation rigorous orders were given. Many notices were 
posted up — I have kept a number of them. . . . People had to 
declare everything that they possessed ; there was no milk and no meat to 
be had. To keep myself alive I had sometimes to rob the soldiers billeted 
on me of bread, sausage, and butter. 

" The provisions sent by the Americans did not reach us. A man was 
not allowed to kill his own beasts for his own use. It was forbidden to 
sell any foodstuffs; it was very difficult to keep one's vegetables. A 
landed proprietor complained that a German soldier had stolen some 
vegetables from his land ; his land was, by order, delivered over to pillage 
and its produce carried off. Captain Olop, of the Artillery, who stayed 

two months at N , was a brute, a drunkard, and a savage; he said 

one day to Mme L that he was surprised that the people of R had 

not perished of want, under his regime, and that the people of N 

would not perish either. Another officer made a similar remark to 

Mme L to the effect that the Germans took pleasure in 

violating all the laws of war, one after the other. The Germans put 



43 

the men and women of the countryside to work. I managed to avoid 

doing it. The Russian prisoners passed through L , carrying 

munitions to the front." 



lY. NIGHT WORK AND WORK UNDER FIRE. 

Annexe 88. 

Mile V , aged 27, day-labourer, deported from H (Pas-de- 
Calais) : — " I can inform you that my sister M , who is younger than 

myself, was forced by the Germans to go to work in the fields, although 
she was unaccustomed to such labour, for whole days and even through 
the night. My sister was engaged on this work laetween the lines of 
the two combatants, in spite of the continual bombardment. She was 
not allowed tp stop work." 



Annexe 89. 

M. D , aged 55, miner, deported from H (Pas-de-Calais): — 

" At H the Germans forced girls between 14 and 35 to work in the 

fields without payment or wages. One night in August, 1915, the 

Germans compelled the girls of H to work on the land by night two 

hundred metres from the French front. That only happened once; the 
girls protested and refused to resume work." 



Annexe 90. 

Mme D , aged 40, of no profession, deported from H (Pas-de- 
Calais) : — " I have nothing to say except that I think I ought to bring 
to notice the conduct of the Germans in obliging the French — even 
women — to work both by day and by night in fields lying between the 
two lines of fire — and this in spite of the continual bombardment. I 

can even mention by name the girl M who lives with me at M and 

who was often engaged on this kind of very dangerous work. The 
Germans were very severe, and it was impossible to escape compliance 
with their demands. So far as I myself am concerned, I have no 
complaint to make on this point." 



Annexe 91. 

Mile V , aged 21, day-labourer, deported from H (Pas -de- 
Calais) : — "I have not been ill-treated, but all the same I have occasion 
to complain of the German authorities. 

" For four months, from June till almost the end of October, I was 
compelled to work, by day and often by night, in fields situated between 
the French and German lines, in spite of the shells. 

" We were compelled to lie down at night when the French patrols 
passed. There were a great number of us; all the people of the village 
who were capable of working were subjected to the same treatment.' 



44 



Annexe 93. 

Mile Henriette B , aged 18, sorter at tlie Mines at L , deported 

from D (Pas-de-Calais): — "I was imprisoned for two days for not 

arriving" punctually for the work in tlie fields to which we were compelled 
to go every day — even on Sundays — from 8 to 12, and from 2 to 5. 
The corporal, whose name I do not know, forced us to remain at work 
in spite of the shells ; he himself used to hide behind the hayricks. 
We had a disc with a number, which we carried round our 
necks." 



Annexe 94. 

Mile M , deported from W (Pas-de-Calais): — "From March, 

1915, until the 30th September, 1915, all the girls belonging to W 

were obliged to work in the fields, under military escort, three times 
a week, in spite of the shells which, latterly, fell unceasingly. Once 
the English shells fell upon the metal works where we were engaged in 
threshing wheat. The Germans went down into the cellars but forced 
us to go on with our work. A girl who ran away, had to work all the 
day long, next day, as a punishment." 



45 



The authority of the legitimate power having 
actually passed into the hands of the occupant, the 
latter shall take all steps in his power to re-establish 
and insure, as far as possible, public order and 
safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, 
the laws in force in the country. {Hague Conven- 
tion, 18ih October, 1907, Art. 43.) 



V. 
COMPULSORY LABOUR AT A DISTANCE FROM HOME. 



46 



Annexe 95. 

M. C , aged 49, assistant-surveyor, deported from La M 

(Meuse) : — "When I left with my children the German Commandant 
told us to take provisions for two days, informing- us that we were 
to be deported and that we should reach the Swiss frontier in two days; 

when we arrived at L (Meurthe-et-Moselle) they kept us prisoners 

for a month. We were partly maintained there by the commune, and 
my daughters were forced to work for the Germans at agriculture and 
at cleaning the streets and the houses pillaged by them ; they paid no 
remuneration. During this time I was ill. I was nursed to some small 
extent by my children, and subsequently found myself obliged to go 

into hospital at B (Meurthe-et-Moselle), being assisted by the said 

commune, since I was at the end of my resources. When I came out of 
the hospital I left the place." 



Annexe 96. 

Extract from the letter of a prisoner at the German InternTnent Camp 
at X , 8th April, 1916. 

*' Let it be remembered that it is thanks to this work of our prisoners 
and to the work of the civilians brought from the occupied districts 
(they compel them to enter into engagements to work for three months 
or more in Westphalia or in the Rhineland) — let it be remembered that 
it is thanks to this work that our enemies reckon on being still able to 
produce what is of service for their defence! " 



Annexe 99. 

Mme P , aged 45, cook, deported from (Aisne) : — "No ill- 
treatment, but I, with others, was requisitioned to go and bury the 

French soldiers who had fallen in the district of A (Aisne). The 

French soldiers, taking us for Germans, fired some shells ; we fell back, 
and the Germans took aim at us, to prevent us from retreating. Then 
we stayed where we were. Nobody was hit." 



Annexe 100. 
M. A , aged 15, pottery hand, deported from L- 



*' On the 24th August, 1914, an officer and a sergeant, seeing me on the 
threshold of my door, told me to go to the Mairie. There they gave me 

two horses and ordered me to take some guns to D . We were 

twenty-five French drivers to twenty-five horses and four French 75's, 
escorted by mounted dragoons. 

" At D I was set to repairing the roads and to building up the 

trenches — eight to nine hours' work a day. 

" For three months' work I received 6 marks in a single payment." 



47 

Annexe 103. 

Declaration of M. F , dated the 20th June, 1915. 

The undersigned F , born at S , having been made a civil 

prisoner at S , on the 5th December we were interned, to the number 

of about a thousand, one section at L , and the remainder at Q . 

At L we were forced to work from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., and when you 

fell ill, they came to fetch you just the same, and compelled you to 
work ; if anybody objected at all, it was three days' cells, on bread and 
water 

I saw a comrade, who had tried to escape, being beaten ; he had his 
hands tied behind his back for five days' cells. 

On the 13th March a hundred of us were sent to work at H , in 

the Somme, to dig beetroots. We started at six in the morning and 
worked till six in the evening. Often if a man raised his head and 
rested from work for a few moments, the soldiers would throw them- 
selves on him, crying " Hof , Hof ! " and beat him with the butts of 
their rifles or throw beetroots in his face. Our diet was a loaf of 
German bread every three days; coffee that was mere dirty water in 
the morning; a bowl of soup at noon, made with rice or flour; coffee 
again in the evening. 

It often happened that we got no bread, because, so they said, the 
convoy had been held up by the French ; when some comrades 
escaped, we were deprived of our food ; for two days we had nothing but 
coffee for our entire diet. 

Once ten of our comrades escaped; next day eight of them were re- 
captured. They received more than two hundred blows with a horse-whip 
and were deprived of bread for two days : the guards who escorted them 
to work carried sticks, and if any of them raised his head he got a blow 
from a stick They were forced to march with a military step, to stand 
to attention, and to salute the German officers. 

On the 13th May we were returned to L , where the diet consisted 

of 250 grammes of bread, and (at 4 o'clock) soup with rice and a fragment 
of meat, which smelt, and which one was often obliged to throw away; 
we were forced to work, — to go to the forest, where we moved tree-trunks, 
— or else we loaded cotton or old iron for transport to Germany. 

The Major in command of the place is named von M . 

20th June, 1915. 

(Signed) F . 



92S3 



49 



Relief Societies for prisoners of war, regularly 
constituted in accordance with the law of their 
country with the object of serving as the inter- 
mediaries for charity, shall receive from the bellige- 
rents, for themselves and their duly accredited 
agents, every facility, within the bounds of military 
necessities and administrative regulations, for the 
effective accomplishment of their humane task. 
{JIague Convention. ISth October, 1907, A7-t. 15.) 

The action of Relief Societies, as of the Embassies 
charged with the defence of French interests, cannot 
be practically exercised in regard to civilians not 
prisoners of tear wh > have been brought back from 
Germany to the invaded districts and whose 
residence and condition it is impossible to ascertain. 



VI. 

CIVILIAN PRISONEES EETUENED FEOM GEEMANY TO 
WOEK AT A DISTANCE FEOM THEIE HOMES IN 
OCCUPIED TEEEITOEY. 



9288 ^ 2 



50 



Annexe 104, 

It appears necessary to insert here the following official document of the German 
Government, which establishes that civilian prisoners have been returned into occupied 
territory, without its being possible to ascertain their residence or their condition, and 
that this step was taken for reasons which the German authorities refuse to give. The 
treatment of these French citizens is subject to no rules and no control. They are com- 
pletely lost to their relatives. It is impossible to tell on what work they are employed. 

Extract from a Note Yerbale of the German Department of Foreign 
Affairs, dated 27th October, 1915, communicated to the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs of the French Republic by Note Yerbale of the 
Spanish Embassy at Berlin, 13th November, 1915 (relating to the 
transfer of civilian prisoners ivho have been returned from Germany 
to Montmedy). 

The German authorities are clearly of opinion that they are under no 
obligation to state the reasons which have motived this transfer. The 
prisoners in question — who, moreover, have been sent back to 
Germany some time since — have enjoyed .... the same rights of 
correspondence . , . . , etc. 



Annexe 105. 

Extract from a letter of Mme D , deported from C (Somme), 

resident at La R (Vaucluse), to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

1st January, 1916. 

" I beg to ask you for news of my husband, made prisoner by the 

Germans on the 24th September, 1914, in the commune of C (Somme) ; 

I am very uneasy about him. I have received only one letter from him — in 
June — in which he told me that he was going into the North of France 
to work in the invaded districts. I have, myself, had to undergo every 
kind of hardship at the hands of our cruel enemies ; they have burnt my 
house 

This is my husband's address : D , civilian prisoner, Holzminden 

(Germany)." 



Annexe 106. 

Extract from a letter from Mme B , residing at G {Aube), to 

the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

" Sir, — Exiled from the Meuse, I had my unfortunate husband, 
who was made prisoner on the 17th September, 1914, taken awaj^ t» 
Germany and interned in the camp at Grafenwohr till June, 1915 ; then 
he was returned to the invaded districts to work; since then I have, up 

to now, received only one card from him, telling me that he was at B 

(Ardennes)." 



51 



Annexe 109. 



Extract from a letter from Mme B , at C (Oue), to the Minister 

of Foreign Affairs, relative to her hrotJier, N , a civilian prisoner 

interned at Darmstadt. 

9th November, 1915. 

" My brotlier, M. N., was a civilian prisoner in tlie camp at Darmstadt. 
He has been transferred from the camp, and is at Montmedy, near Bar- 
le-Duc in the Meuse, an invaded district; since he was transferred, we 
have had no news of him. Letters are returned with this address. . ."- 



Annexe 110. 

Extract from a letter from Mme B , at L {Pas-de-Calais), to the 

Minister of Foreign Affairs, relative to her son B . 

13th December, 1915. 

" I should be very grateful if you would give me news of my son B , 

detained originally at Hameln-s/-Weser, and removed to Montmedy. 
The last two parcels sent to him have been returned to me and I have had 
no news since the 9th June . . . ." 



Annex 111. 

Extract from a letter from Mme K , deported from B {Meuse), 

residing at L {I sere), to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

relative to her husband , aged 51, confined as a prisoner at 

Ehenherg-Landau, where he remained till the IQth June. 

29th November, 1915. 

'* I have had a card from him in which he tells me that he is leaving 
the camp at Ebenberg-Landau and is being sent to Montmedy (Meuse) — 
that the prisoners are told that they will be able to go and find their 
families, and that he will write as soon as he arrives. Since then I have 
heard nothing. I had written to the Agency for Prisoners of War at 
Geneva. I received a card on the 23rd October, telling me that he was 
in the invaded districts. . . ." 



Annexe 112. 

Extract from a letter from Mme D , at A {Alpes-Maritimes), to 

the Minister of Foreign Affairs, relative to her husband D , 

aged 38, made a civilian prisoner in September, 1914, at M 

(Somme) and interned at Erfurt. 

29th November, 1915. 

" He remained at Erfurt till June; having no news during June, July 
and August, I decided to apply to the Spanish Ambassador, in the course 
of September; he informed me that my husband was at Montmedy. 
Being entirely without news of him since then, I should be very 
grateful, etc," 



52 

Annexe 113. 

Extract from a letter from Mme P , deported from M {Aisne), 

resident at P , near P (Oise), to the Minister of Foreign 

Affairs, relative to her husband P , aged 46, and his son 

A P , aged 21. 

29tli November, 1915. 

" In the last instance my husband left the camp at Havelberg towards 
the end of June, 1915, to be sent probably to Montmedy ; according to un- 
official information, be would be at the present time in the neig'hbourhood 
of Guise (Aisne). My son left the camp at Havelberg- at the end of 
June, and was also sent to Montmedy ; he is perhaps in the Department 
of the Aisne; the latest letter received from him, in July last, came 
from r (Aisne)." 



Annexe 114. 

E attract frorn a letter from Mvie M G , at Troyes (Aube), to the 

Minister of Foreign Affairs, relative to M. W , of S {Meuse), 

made a civilian prisoner in September, 1914, and interned at 
Grafemoohr till the Ibth June, 1915. 

26th January, 1916. 

" He left at this date (15th June, 1915) with a party of workers for 
Anderny (Meurthe-et-Moselle) ; since he left the camp I am without 
news." 



Annexe 115. 

Extract from a letter from Mme G to the Minister of Foreign 

Affairs, relative to M. J , aged 53, farmer, made a civilian 

prisoner in September, 1914, at C (Ardennes), interned at 

Grafenwohr {Bavaria) till Ibth June, 1915, and to M. J , 

aged 22. {Same particulars.) 

10th December, 1915. 

" All the letters which I have written to them during June have been 
returned to me, marked: — 16.6.15. Transferred to Montmedy." 



Annexe 116. 

{Depositions.) 

M. L , aged 23, domestic servant, deported from B, , near B 

(Ardennes): — "Arrested in September, 1914. Shut up in the church 

at R with three hundred men of the adjacent villages. Taken 

to Grafenwohr (Bavaria). Returned from Grafenwohr to Montmedy 

15th June, 1915. He was sent from Montmedy to C (Ardennes) 

with 62 other prisoners. He is employed there in agricultural work : 
on the crops. These are seized by the Germans to be sent to 
Germany. As for potatoes, they leave to the inhabitants only 60 pounds 
a head for 3 months. He received in wages one franc a day, out of 
which they levied 50 pfennigs for food. So he and the other prisoners 
had 30 pfennigs a day left! He escaped." 



53 



Annexe 117. 



M. H , aged 19, farm-servant at F (Meuse) : — "Arrested at 

Forges, 17th September, 1914, with ten hostages. Taken to G , then 

to H , then to T , and to camp at Grafenwohr (Bavaria). 

Brought back to France (15th June, 1915) and employed on agricultural 
work in the Canton of C (Ardennes)." 



Annexe 118. 

s 

M. F , aged 21, bank clerk, at C (Nord) : — "Arrested in 

October, 1914, at B (Meuse). Taken to camp at Darmstadt. He 

left Darmstadt in May, 1915, for Montmedy, when he was sent to P 

(Ardennes), where he stayed till the end of October. Afterwards he 
moved about the Canton generally. During this time he was engaged 
on agricultural work — mostly threshing. He escaped in January, 
1916." 



Annexe 119. 

M. C , aged 58, farmer, deported from C (Aisne), February, 

1916: — ** I stayed at Zerbst from October till June. Then they took all 
the farmers and told them that they were to be sent back to their country, 

but really it was to do haymaking for the Germans. The city of L 

fed us, and, as it had not much to spare, we were even worse off than 
before. It was good, but there was precious little of it ! During this 
time it was impossible for us to go and see our families." 



Annexe 120. 
M. V , aged 55, drover, deported from T , Canton of V- 



( Aisne) : — "In the camp at Zerbst there were about 12,000 French 
soldiers, and about 500 civilians. At Holzminden they reckoned that 
there were from 16,000 to 18,000 prisoners; 400 civilian prisoners left 

the camp on the 9th February, 1916, to be repatriated. At L he 

found himself one of the 150 civilian prisoners from the Aisne, returned 
from Germany for the hay harvest; he was lodged in the barracks and 
fed by the municipality." 



55 



Neither Requisitions in kind nor services can be 
demanded from commones or inhabitants except 
for the necessities of the army of occupation. They 
.must be in proportion to the resources of the 
cV^ntry. {Hague Convention, ISth October, 1907. 
Art. 52.) 



VII. 
WOEK WITHOUT REMUNERATIOISr. 

YIII. 
DIET OF THE WORKERS. 



56 



VII. 

WORK WITHOUT EEMTJNERATION. 

Annexe 122. 

M. F , Swiss citizen, born at T , Canton of Lucerne, aged 53, 

cowman on the farm of M. J. , at N (Marne), and bailiS of the 

farm: — "From tlie 5tli September onwards tbe Germans forced me to 
work every day at most revolting labour, made me answer to a roll- 
call twice a day, and never gave me a farthing. Until February I had 
to pay for the bread which was measured out to me (125 grammes of 
black bread). After February the bread was provided by the commune." 



Annexe 124. 

M. C , aged 44, keeper, deported from B (Marne): — "He 

declared that the Germans had detained one of h's sons, aged 17. 
They made him work on the land ; he was paid 15 centimes a day, as he 
also was himself while in the invaded districts." 



Annexe 126. 

M. B , deported from L (Nord) : — "The German authorities 

compelled us to work in the fields, getting beetroots and what remained 
of the crops. All the women and girls, as well as the men, were forced 
to go, without any pay. At the least sign of refusal, they talked of 
shooting us." 



Annexe 134. 

Mme B , aged 58, householder, deported from A (Arden- 
nes) : — (She was not ill-treated but) " The Germans obliged her and her 
daughter to wash the linen of the German Red Cross Hospitals. They 
ordered that the linen should be returned dry within a certain time — 
regardless of the temperature ! — and threatened one, if it was not ready, 

with being sent as a prisoner to what they called "the ", that is 

to say the ironworks at . For the laundry work they gave us bills 

drawn on M. PoincareJ' 

(This is corroborated in Annexe 137 by Mile B , daughter of Mme B .) 



57 

VIII. 

DIET OF THE WORKERS. 

Annexe 142. 

Mile B , aged 18, farm-servant, deported from M (Aisne) : — 

** They compelled me to act as servant to German officers. But I slept 
at home, to avoid any attempt upon me. The officers' military servants 
accompanied me both coming and going. I was not paid, but I ate at 
the officers' quarters." 



Annexe 146. 

Mme G , aged 37, small holder, deported from L (Arden- 
nes) : — " For four months I had to work for the Germans, who forced me 
to milk a herd of cows and to clean the streets, but I never got any wages 
for this work. They gave me a loaf of bread — about 3 pounds — ior 
myself, my four children, my father-in-law, and my husband; even this 
amount they did not give us every day." 



Annexe 149. 

Mme S , aged 31, lace-maker, deported from A (Meurthe-et- 

Moselle) : — "From the moment that they deported me they forced me 
to go and plant potatoes and cultivate and sow the fields for them. For 
at least two months all they gave us was three pounds of black bread 
to last five people three days ! " 



59 



Requisitions in kind must be in proportion to 
the resources of the country. 

Supplies in kind shall as far as possible be paid 
for in ready money ; if not, their receipt shall be 
acknowledged and the payment of the amount due 
shall be made as soon as possible. {Hague Conven- 
tion, 1907, Art. 52.) 

An army of occupation can only take possession 
of cash, funds and realizable securities which are 
strictly the property of the state, depots of arms, 
means of transport, stores and supplies, and, 
generally, all movable property of the state which 
may be used for operations of war. (Ibid., 
Art. 53.) 



IX. 
OBJECT OF THE WORK. 



60 

Annexe 151. 

Mme G , ag-ed 46, houseliolder, deported from C (Aisne) on 

12th January, 1916: — "The inhabitants and working people of C 

are obliged to work in the fields. The Germans take possession of all 
the crops. 

" Up till 1st September, 1915, the men received 1 fr. a day, and the 
women 60 centimes, but since that date the Germans have stopped pay- 
ment and make the people work just the same." 



Annexe 152. 

Mme C , deported from G (Meuse) : — "During the three 

weeks that we were at G (Meuse) with 110 people from the same 

village, camped in a barn, I was compelled to go into the fields every 
day, beginning on 17th September 1914, to gather potatoes and beetroot. 
We were requisitioned by German non-commissioned officers, guarded 
by soldiers, and we used to work in gangs of 20 at least, 

"We began work at 8 o'clock in the morning; we returned, under 
escort, to our barn for our midday meal, which consisted of a sufficient 
quantity of black bread and some horrible sort of soup. 

" We worked again from 2 till 5. 

" We were not paid ; we were only authorised to pick up a few potatoes 
to eke out our food. 

" We slept anyhow on dirty straw, not to say litter. 

" From G we were taken to D (Meuse), where we remained 17 

days. I was occupied each day in removing the crop of potatoes and 

beans. The order of work and the food was the same as at G . We 

slept in a fine barn, in a bed. We were authorised to take from G 

our sleeping effects (except the bed) because there were among us some 
old men and young children. 

" I may add that all the crops that we collected were for the great part 
sent away to Germany ; the trees, too — walnut trees, cherry trees — which 
the Germans pulled up." 

(Walnut is used to make the butts of rifles.) 



Annexe 153. 
M. Albert Camille L , aged 17, no profession, deported from A- 



(Oise), in January, 1915: — "Directly the Germans came, we really 
suffered from hunger. We only had 120 grammes of foul black bread. 
As to meat, we only had the refuse thrown away by the soldiers, and we 
had to pay very high even for that. 

"The Boches encouraged the population to cultivate the land ; they even 
sold us potatoes for seed; then, when the crop was ready, they took it 
all without even giving requisition vouchers. The corn they worked at 
themselves without troubling about the boundaries of the fields; they 
demanded repayment of the price of this work, then harvested it all and 
took it. It was absolutely forbidden for us to have any corn or meat 
in our houses on pain of imprisonment. 

" The Germans took prisoner about 40 civilians, between 18 and 45, 
in our village. Ten are shut up in the factory of C. They are employed 
on forced labour. All the trees in this district are cut down. There is 
not a walnut tree left." 



61 



Any compulsion on the population of occupied 
territory to furnish information about the army of 
the other belligerent or about his means of defence 
is forbidden. — {Hague Com^ention. Art. 44.) 

The giving up to pillage of a town or place, even 
when taken by assault, is forbidden. — {Hague Con- 
vention. Art. 28.) 

A belligerent is likewise forbidden to compel 
nationals of the adverse party to take part in the 
operations of war directed against their country. — 
{Hague Convention, Art. 23.) 



X. 

FORCED COLLABORATION IN MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



This evidence is only reproduced here because it 
is connected with the depositions about the labour 
imposed on the populations of the invaded Depart- 
ments. It corroborates too facts of the same nature 
already leported by the Commission appointed to 
establish German violations of international law. 



62 



a. Compulsion under Threats to give Information to the Enemy. 

Annexe 155. 

M. C. , aged 71, farmer, deported from P (Vosges), on 10th 

October, 1915: — "One day, I think it was the 13th or 14th September, 

they commandeered me to show them the way to the Chateau of P . 

At a halt the soldiers showed me some cartridges to threaten me; one 
of them pretended to cut my throat with the back of his sword. I only 
got home at 5 o'clock in the evening. 

" When I got home I found my house had been looted. A calf had 
been stolen. My linen was thrown about." 



6. Collaboration in Looting. 

Annexe 158. 

M. M. , aged 49, farmer, deported from M (Meurthe-et- 

Moselle), on 4th January, 1915 : — " M. M. witnessed organised loot- 
ing. The prisoners were sent to fetch the objects taken out of the houses 
and carried them on wheelbarrows to the German captain, who had all the 
plunder loaded on trucks. This forced labour was done by prisoners 
under an armed escort. The German soldiers also laid hands on the 
bottles of wine and spirits in the cellars ; they drank these liquors till 
they were soon in a state of extreme drunkenness." 



Annexe 159. 

Extract from a Declaration made by M. B. , a French soldier of the 

2\st Coy, Regim,ent of Infantry, hefore the French Consul- 

General at Rotterdam, 28th September, 1915 : — 

" Towards the beginning of September, 1915, the Germans began, in 
the streets of H (Aisne), to collect the peaceful inhabitants, able- 
bodied men, and make them work under their orders. 

" There was a captain or commandant in charge of the town. Each 
day brought an order more terrible than the last; alarming placards 
covered the walls. 

" Requisitions of wines and liqueurs, spirits, &c., of furniture, 
mirrors, bedding, wardrobes, phonographs, photographic apparatus, 
arms, horses and foals, cows and calves, as they needed them. 

" Everything was carried off systematically and sent away to 
Germany. All this work was done by the men who were left in the 
country and were paid by the town. What was not carried off was 
broken to pieces and made useless." 



Annexe 160. 

M. M , aged TO, farmer, deported from M (Pas-de-Calais), 

5th April, 1915: — "At C , where he stayed five months, he was for 

most of the time badly fed and camped with others in a large building 
where there was nothing but damp straw (food : remains of slaughtered 
beasts, a few carrots and black bread). 



63 

" In this place the able-bodied men were employed by the Germans in 
dismantling and packing- up the contents of two factories ; all the objects 
and materials as well as the machinery were loaded onto motor wag-g-ons 
or lorries and transported to Germany. One of the factories is situated 
on the Bapaume road ; the other in Cambrai itself, close to the canal. In 
the first about 1,900 bales of linseed, 400,000 kilos, of oilcake, with all 
accessory machinery; it was the same in the other." 



(c) Civilians employed as a shield. 

Annexe 161. 

Mile D , aged 24, no profession, deported from H (Meuse) 

in February, 1915: — "At C (Meuse) the Germans had civilians 

placed in rows in front of the German lines to get them killed by French 
bullets; the French did not fire." (The incident referred to took place 
on September 23rd, 1914.) 



Annexe 162. 

M. L , aged 73, farm-servant, deported from M (Ardennes) :^ 

** The undersigned saw, from his garden, two persons wounded with 
bombs. They were being forced to march in front of the Germans." 



Annexe 163. 

Mme M , aged 48, agricultural worker, deported from A- 

(Oise), 24th February, 1915:— "My husband, M , born at R- 



on 4th April, 1867, was arrested on 22nd September, 1914, in our home. 
Was taken, with other Frenchmen, to the second line of fire so that 
they should be bombarded by our own countrymen. Brought back to 

tbe church at A , kept for two days, then taken to F , and from 

there to Germany. 

" Since then I have had no news of him excejit through the Red Cross 
on 25th September, 1915." 



Annexe 164. 

Mme S , aged 40, day-worker, deported from S (Meuse), 

13th May, 1915:— "The schoolmaster of Stenay, M. T , was put 

to scout for them by the Germans when they entered the town. He 
was killed by French bullets." 



Annexe 166. 

Mme A , aged 25, seamstress, deported from L (Meurthe-et- 

Moselle), 20th March, 1915:— "The inhabitants of V took refuge 

in L . I saw them arrive covered with blood ; their beards had been 

torn out; they had been maltreated. According to them, the Germans 

put them in front of their troops in the advance on L , where they 

were fired on from the fort." 

9283 E 



64 



Annexe 167. 



M. Q , ag-ed 65, day labourer, deported from P (Aisne) tlie 

end of February, 1915: — "Forty women, wlio bad been arrested and 
were guarded by armed men, were obliged to clean the roads, to take 
manure into tbe field opposite Soissons, at the place called Lapre, in 
jrder to defy tbe Allies and prevent them firing." 



Annexe 168. 

M. B , aged 63, day labourer, deported from M (Ardennes), 

14tb December, 1915: — "Tbe German au^tliorities bad all tbe trees cut 
down, cut into lengtbs, and sent tbem to Germany. Tbirty men were 
always taken as bostages and were put on tbe railway lines." 



Annexe 169. 

Mme F , aged 51, owner of a vineyard, deported from C 

(Meuse), 9tb December, 1914 : — " Tbe day of ber arrest and tbe following 
day sbe was taken on two separate occasions on to tbe bill with a party 
of villagers and placed in front of tbe German first line ; tbe first day 
from noon till 6 o'clock, tbe second time all day. 

" Sbe received no food from tbe Prussians during ber internment in 
tbe cburcb; sbe used to go and fetch something to eat in the fields." 
(These incidents took place on the 18th and 19th September. 1914, at C (Meuse).) 



Annexe 170. 

M. S , aged 17, farm hand, deported from B, (Somme), 

12th February, 1915: — "On their arrival at R on August 30th, 

1914, the Germans did not treat tbe civilian population badly, but when 
they came back from tbe battle of tbe Marne, they killed several civilians. 
Four days after their retreat they forced me, as well as tbe deputy 

mayor of R , to go in front of them in the firing line in consequence 

of the advance of the French on R . Under cover of the darkness we 

returned to R about midnight — my father, who was with me, as 

well. Every day we were compelled to attend a roll-call about 8 o'clock 
in the morning and 4 o'clock in the afternoon. When they were at 
JRoye, tbe Germans compelled us to clean tbe town." 



Annexe 171. 

Mile G , aged 12, no profession, deported from B (Somme), 

31st November, 1914: — "Once, in September, 1914, about 7 o'clock in 
tbe morning, my aunt and I were taken as hostages, when we were 
at breakfast; they took us, with four other girls, towards the station. 
There they placed us in front of them (it was a party of Uhlans) and 

opened fire on the French, who replied; my uncle, Paul V , who was 

with us, received a bullet through the heart and fell dead. We lay down 
on the ground, pretending to be dead; then some Zouaves arrived and 
captured the party of Uhlans. Then we were free and went home." 



66 



Annexe 172. 

Mine F , aged 56, householder, deported from S (Meurthe-et- 

Moselle), 19th December, 1914: — "Every demand of the Germans was 
accompanied by threats, and was made by them revolver in hand. 

" On August 22nd, 1914, the Germans made the whole population 
come out of their houses and forced them to march in front of their 
columns towards the French guns. 

" I do not know the name of the German officer in command. Besides, 
I heard he was killed that day." 



Annexe 173. 

M. M , aged 63, mason, deported from B : — " On October 8th, 

1914, in company with about a hundred civilian prisoners, men, women 
and children, he was compelled with threats to march in frout of a strong 
detachment of German troops. 

" These troops apparently wanted to cross a bridge over a stream not 

far from B , and, as they thought that the French troops would 

defend the bridge, they made this troop of prisoners march in front 
of them. 

" Close to the bridge, indeed, the French opened fire on the Germans; 
the latter soon gave way. We were thrown into a ditch beside the road 
and none of us was hit by the French bullets. Some hours later, as the 
French were no longer firing, and with good reason, as they had been 
ordered to retire, the Germans came back to look for us; they made us 
leave our shelter by pricking us with their bayonets." 



Annexe 176. 

Mme N , aged 28, householder, deported from M 

(Ardennes): — "On August 26th, 1914, at 9 o'clock in the morning, 
the Germans made me prisoner and put me with 53 others, women 
and children, in front of their troops to prevent the French firing at 
them. In spite of this, the French fired at the Germans over our heads, 
without hitting us. We remained in this situation till 1 o'clock." 



Annexe 179. 

M. P , aged 61, freeholder, deported from R (Nord), 7th 

February, 1916: — "The Germans took me prisoner in my house; an 

officer of the rank of lieutenant took me into the battle of R ; on 

the way I was struck several times by another German officer with the 
flat of his sword. 

" When I reached the front of their detachment I found my neighbour 

G , aged about 62, a retired factory superintendent, who was killed in 

the course of the battle, certainly by a French bullet." 



9288 E 2 



66 



Annexe 181. 

Mme y , aged 54, cliarwonian, deported from S (Ardennes), 

23rd April, 1915: — "The German troops reached S on the 25th of 

August, 1914, at 9 o'clock in the morning, preceded by some Uhlans. 
The latter were driving in front of them men, women, and children from 

the town to act as guides. Among them were M. M and Mme 

L . M. M was killed by the bullets of French soldiers who 

tried for a moment to oppose the enemy's entry. His dead body was 
found in the street. Mme L returned home safe and sound. 

" Many of the inhabitants of S , among them the couple H , 

relations of this repatriated woman, living at T , can cor- 
roborate this story." 



Annexe 183. 

M. B , aged 42, workman, deported from L (Meurthe-et- 

Moselle), 28th November, 1915:— "On August 1st, 1914, M. B , 

who had been for nearly twenty years employed in a foundry at L- 



(Meurthe-et-Moselle), presented himself at the police station of this town 
where he was told that he must await a summons to serve, as he was 
liable for auxiliary service. 

" On August 6th, knowing that the enemy was investing L , he 

decided to make for the French lines; the next day, August 7th, he was 
arrested by the Germans at C (Meurthe-et-Moselle) ; his captors ill- 
treated him, taking from him 2,220 fr. in cash. From the 7th to the 
27th of August they kept him with them, giving him no food and 
pushing him into the front rank if attacked ; that is how he received 
four wounds, a fracture of the left leg necessitating his transportation 
to Metz, then to Regensburg (Bavaria). 

" Put first in barracks, then in the civilian prison, he remained at 
Regensburg from September 12th, 1914, till February 20th, 1915, and 
during this time was not able to correspond in any way with his family, 
who thought him dead. On this last date he was transferred to the 
camj) at Holzminden, where, after some days, he was admitted to the 
hospital, which he only quitted on November 28th, 1915, to be 
repatriated." 



Annexe 184. 

Mme F , aged 65, dressmaker, deported from V (Aisne), 10th 

January, 1916: — "On September 16th, 1914, at the moment of the 

French attack, the Germans had made loopholes in the walls at V 

(Aisne) through which the riflemen had levelled their rifles, and they 
had placed a certain number of inhabitants, including my family and 
my grandchildren^ on the other side of the wall, in front of 
the rifles. The French attack having developed on the other side, the 
Germans sent the women and children home and kept the men, who 
were sent into captivity in Germany." 

( ) Girls aged 13, 8, and H years. 



67 

Annexe 185. 

Mme W (F), aged 36, no profession, deported from M 

(Meurthe-et-Moselle), 14tli May, 1915: — "On the morning of August 
23rd, 1914, there was an artillery duel between the French and German 

armies above M , which by some extraordinary chance did not su:Ser. 

When the Germans arrived, they set fire to the village, on the pretext 
that they had been fired at, which was untrue. In an instant almost all 
the houses, which were farms, were in flames. They tried to set fire 
to mine, too, but it was only partially burnt. 

" They looted all the inside, carrying off all my belongings, even my 
underlinen. As I deal in wine, I had various liquors in my cellar. All 
that could not be drunk on the sjjot or carried off was scattered about in 
the cellar or broken ; there was 10 centimetres of liquid in the cellar. 

" The next day they completed the disaster by burning the remaining 
houses. At the present moment about seven are left intact out of about 
fifty. 

" Meanwhile, the male population had been assembled, and the 
Germans threatened to shoot them, on the pretext that there had been 
firing from the village. 

" They were placed in front of a body of Germans who were advancing 
in the direction of the French positions. 

*' They marched so for three hours; at last, at 9 o'clock in the evening, 
as the German detachment had not been attacked, they were brought 
baclv to M under escort. 

" The troops who committed these crimes were the 119th Regiment 
of Infantry and the 122nd which came the next day. It was by order 
of the superior officers, for in Germany the soldiers are too well 
disciplined to act on their own initiative." 



Annexe 186. 

M. D , day labourer, deported from L (Somme), 27th 

February, 1915 : — '* In L I lived on the road to F , at the edge 

of the district, towards C . On the morning of the 24th September, 

1914, our 117th Regiment of Infantry was engaged with the Germans. 
There was a rattle of musketry and gradually our troops evacuated the 
village. About one o'clock the German infantry arrived; they were mad 
with rage. To the number of about 20, they came into my house. One 
of them — I think he was a non-commissioned officer — seized me brutally 
by the arm and forced me into the street, while his companions laid 
hands on my chickens and rabbits and took possession of my clothes. 

First, they led me towards R ; in the course of their march I saw 

them ransack the houses and arrest the men, whom they drove in parties 
in front of them. 

" The Germans ordered us to take the road to L . Scarcely had we 

reached the square in L , when the French, posted at the beginning 

of the open country, opened a brisk fire. D , G. C , E. C , 

and C fell at my side from bullets meant for the Germans. The 

firing ceased at once. The Germans recoiled slightly, telling us not to 

move. I helped D 's sons to look to their father. At about 5 o'clock 

in the evening I succeeded in escaping, but a few minutes later I was 
caught again and kept under surveillance with twenty-three of my neigh- 
bours till the next morning, then released. From September 24th till 
October 6th, 1914, the German authorities forbade the inhabitants to 
leave their houses on pain of death. On October 6th I was arrested by 
the Germans with twenty-four oi my neighbours."' 



69 



Requisitions in kind and services must be of such 
a nature as not to imply for the population any 
obligation to take part in military operations against 
their country. {Hague Convention, Article 52.) 



XI. 
WORK IN CONNECTION WITH MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



70 

a. Construction of Trenches, Roads, and Railways. 
Annexe 198. 

M. B , aged 61, day labourer, deported from A (Somme) : — 

" At P official orders were issued imposing' work; at S no official 

order was issued; at least, I saw none." 

" Round P and S , civilians, of from IG to 50 years, were 

diffffing- trenches." 



'&&" 



Annexe 199. 

Mme P , deported from B (Aisne) : — "The village of B 

was invaded by the Germans on September 1st, 1914, and I do not know 
of any punishment being inflicted on workers employed by the enemy ; 
at the same time, when they needed men for work, they used to announce 
to the population with a bell that they were to go and clean out the 
canal and unload coal and repair the bridges and railway lines. Por 
this work they got no pay except a voucher for bread to the value of 
30 centimes. 

" Purther, I can state that on November 14th, 1914, two officers on 
their rounds came and ordered us to open our door at half-past eight 
(Prench time) ; one of them was a lieutenant, the other was a sub- 
lieutenant. 

" When we had obeyed their orders, they came in, revolver in hand, 
and at the same moment the sub-lieutenant went up to my sister-in-law, 
seized her by the breasts and tried to outrage her. As I cried out, the 
lieutenant came up to me and held his revolver levelled at my face 
for a good five minutes, and it was only at a noise outside that we could 
recover our liberty; and they threatened to have us severely punished, 
saying that we had insulted them. 

" The next day, November 15th, two soldiers, with fixed bayonets, 

took us to the kommandantur in L , where an officer had us led to 

prison, where we remained till the following morning at 11 o'clock 
without water or food. 

" In the first week after their arrival in B^ , they looted everything, 

our provisions and our wood, without troubling about our existence and 
without giving us a single requisition voucher." 



Annexe 200. 

Mme M , aged 21, day worker, deported from Y (Somme), 

12th January, 1916: — "My husband's brother, G. M , aged 20, 

was taken away by the Germans, who made him work for five months 
at trenches towards M . Then they brought him back to V ." 



Annexe 202. 

M, A , aged 52, factory superintendent, deported from C 

(Meurthe-et-Moselle), 7th January, 1916: — " He states that the Germans 
cut down all the walnut trees in the district and razed the State forests, 
forwarding the wood to sawmills which were running day and night. 
They removed all the copper that they found in the country and levied 
a contribution of 40,000 fr. The roads are mined." 



71 

" Shortly before liis return, 2,000 Russian prisoners were digging 

trenches at B (Meurthe-et-Moselle). Other prisoners, Russian and 

French, were engaged in breaking up and loading ballast to make 
concrete." 



Annexe 207. 

Mme C , aged 34, small holder, deported from B 

(Meurthe-et-Moselle), April 9th, 1915 : — " States that she saw a German 

officer fasten the Mayor of B to a wall and threaten to shoot him, 

for not having opened a door when ordered to do so ; states further that 
the enemy made her son, aged 12, go with her horse and cart and take 
planks to the next village to make trenches — too hard work for a boy 
of that age." 



Annexe 210. 

M. H. , aged 16, pit hand, deported from F at the end of 

October, 1914: — " On the approach of the Germans I had taken refuge 

at H (Pas-de-Calais), at my aunt's house. On October 24th, 1914, 

the Germans succeeded in taking H and the surrounding country as 

far as L . My aunt and I had taken refuge in the cellar, when seven 

Germans arrived at about 7 a.m., ransacked the house and discovered us 
in the cellar. They made us come upstairs but did not strike us or 
hustle us. One of them spoke French. A motor was waiting at the door. 
They put me into it between two Germans with fixed bayonets. My 
aunt was left at home, 

" I was taken to the plain of L , where I found other lads, aged 

from 15 to 18, from the district of H . There were 50 of us. They 

set us to work to make trenches for the Germans, and we were kept there 
six days. We slept where we were, on the ground, with only one blanket 
against the cold. Fortunately it did not rain. The food was bad, 
though adequate in quantity. When the work did not get on fast enough 
to suit them, the Germans beat us with horsewhips. 

" At the end of six days we were all fetched away one afternoon in 
motors — three of us in each; I was alone in mine, however; we were 

taken to L . It was the 25th or 26th of October. We arrived after 

a few minutes. Firing was audible as the French were attacking the 

main bridge at L . The Germans put all of us in front of them 

to act as a shield. The officers drove us to the front with horse-whips 
and the soldiers with their rifle butts. They all hid behind us. They 
swore at us too. As the French went on firing and the 75's were 
thundering, several of us fell. We were kept there all the afternoon, 
standing up, with the Germans behind us, firing over our shoulders. We 
were terrified, and many were crying. But we told one another we 
must stay there and let the French kill us rather than see the Germans 
win. I was wounded towards the end of the afternoon, and was hit by 
a shell from a 75 in the left arm, which made me lose consciousness. 
Thirty out of the 50 were already killed or wounded. Before we came, the 
Germans had compelled other lads of our age to serve as shields, for there 
were still about 10 of them, whom we saw quite clearly. Also there 
were numerous bodies of young civilians in front of us. 

" When I came to myself again, I was on a stretcher. I was 
surrounded by French soldiers and a medical officer, for the French had 



72 

taken tlie bridge at L and liad picked me up in tlieir advance. 

Tile doctor said tliat I liad been very lucky and tbat it was time to 
put stitches in my arm as I liad lost a great deal of blood. I was carried 
to tlie ambulance at B , wliere I stayed some days. 

" I beard afterwards from my companions that of our party of 50, 40 
bad been killed, either than day or the next; three were wounded and 
only seven had come off scot free. I know one of the other two wounded 

very well; his name is S (C-), and he is 17 years old; he comes from 

H L (Pas-de-Calais). He was taken by the Germans at B 

M , where he was working in the mines too. He was wounded in 

the little finger of the right hand by the explosion of a shell. The 
third one, whose name I do not know, was hit on the left wrist by a 
fragment of shell." 

(The Justice of the Peace inspected young H 's wound. There was 

a long and fairly broad scar close to his elbow, showing that the wound 
was a serious one.) 



Annexe 219. 

M. y , aged 44, machine tool fitter, deported from M (Arden- 
nes), 13th May, 1915 : — " I was forced to cut down a great many walnut 
trees and then load them on lorries, under the supervision of soldiers 
with fixed bayonets and revolvers in their hands. We were overworked 
and often sworn at. We were told that anyone who gave up work would 
be shot on the spot." 



h. Work in Factories and Mines. 
Annexe 225. 



Mme Vve. S , aged 24, deported from S— — : — " About two months 

after the Germans' entry into S , which took place on August 28th, 

1914, placards were posted in the town offering workmen, principally 
those from metal works, occupation in such factories, to be paid at the 
rate of 40 centimes an hour. Few men volunteered : seeing this, the 
Germans collected them by force and sent them into the factories; 
patrols- hunted them out of their houses and took them either to the 
factories or to the quays to unload boats or to the land they were holding, 

to dig trenches. In the works, especially in the M works, they 

turned them on to repair guns. Then the Germans again commandeered 
about 3,000 young men. They sent some of them to Germany and kept 
some to work there. The Germans did not let them go again ; they sent 

them by rail either to Q or to P , where they kept them digging 

the ground. They were very badly fed and slept on rotten straw. When 
their work was not to the liking of the Germans, they were beaten with 
scourges. These young men did not get their pay direct; it was handed 
over to their parents at the rate of 20 fr. a month. 

" The men who worked in factories were generally employed in gangs, 
and so with those who cut wood and made planks and joists for the 

trenches : those who worked at S bought their own food and slept 

at home. 

" As regards their pay, I know that they were paid in paper money, 
either in municipal vouchers or in German mark-notes. 

" On the 16th of April, 1915, when the station at S was bombarded 

by French aviators, the Germans commandeered everybody whom they 
could collect in the town, and made them clear up the debris." 



73 



Annexe 226. 

M. P , aged 55, deported from S : — " I never worked for the 

Germans myself, but I know that a certain number of the inhabitants 
were forced to do so. Once they were enticed away, they coukl never 
escape again; if they did not go back to work, the Germans sent- and 
brought them by force. 

" At Mme D 's the workmen were employed on repairs to motors; 

at the factory M they had to repair guns ; at the factory Y , 

Boulevard X, a steam saw mill, 400 workmen were engaged in making 
stakes for the trenches; these were paid 2 fr. 25 a day. 

" One day the Germans had demanded 300 young men to work in the 
fields; instead of using them for agriculture, they made them dig 
trenches." 



c. Making Sandbags. 
Annexe 230. 



Mile L , aged 26, brickmaker, deported from S (Aisne) : — 

" Shortly after the capture of S , the Germans compelled me to work 

with a good number of other women. We had to wash the soldiers' linen, 
but especially to make sandbags for the trenches. 

"About 300 of us were shut up in a school in the town: we were 
forbidden to leave the building. Reveille was sounded at 5 a.m. and 
we worked till 7 p.m. The work was done in gangs. 

" The women who refused to work or who declared they could only 
work after having enough to eat (the food was very bad and very scanty), 
were beaten either with a great cat-o'-nine-tails or kicked, or a large 
jug of water was thrown over them and they were beaten afterwards. 

" I was a prisoner in the school for 11 weeks. For the first 10 weeks 
I was not paid at all ; the last week (we had been told we should be 
repatriated) we were paid at the rate of 5 centimes for 2 sacks, in paper 
money issued by the municipality of S . 

" For food we were given some turnips in the middle of the day, 
some carrots in the evening, always boiled, without salt, or butter 
or fat, and about a halfpenny worth of bread for the whole day. On 
Sundays, sometimes some rice, sometimes potatoes with a little beef fat. 

" The sacks we made were solely for use in the trenches." 

(This is corroborated in Annexe 231 by Mile R , aged 25, of the same town.) 



Annexe 237. 

Mme L B , aged 27, brickmaker, deported from S , 25th 

April, 1915: — " I saw the Germans ill-treat a girl called A , kicking 

her in the stomach, because she refused to sew sacks before having 
anything to eat. I saw her seriously ill; she was given three days' 
imprisonment and subsequently deported. 

" A young girl, J G , of S , living Rue J P , was 

beaten with a cat-o'-nine-tails and had a jug of water thrown over her for 
having asked for food before working. The work consisted chiefly in 
washing linen and making sandbags." 



74 



Annexe 238. 



Mme L B , aged 30, sclioolmistress, deported from S 

(Yosges), 17tli April, 1915: — "The Germans compelled several women 

at S to work for tliem, making sandbags ; they had to make a certain 

number a day. The men had to do forced labour for the Germans : 
sweeping the streets, maintaining the roads, working at trenches. They 
had to be ready to answer a roll-call at any hour of the day or night." 



Annexe 239. 
Mme L M , aged 26, no profession, deported from M- 



(Nord), 16th December, 1915 : — " The Germans ordered us to make sand- 
bags. When we refused, they imprisoned us in a factory and threatened 
to shoot us. As we persisted in our refusal they only gave us a elice of 
bread and butter a day, and this went on for four days. To prevent us 
getting any sleep, a German soldier used to patrol the factory at night 
and tickle our chins." 

(This is how the G-ermans in many cases got people to contract to work, and afterwards 
represented it as voluntary consent.) 



Annexe 241. 

Letter addressed to M. Durre, depute du Nord, in Paris. 

**' Monsieur le Depute, 

I have the honour to inform you that men living at M and F 

(Nord) and at B (Belgium) have been in civilian prisons in Germany 

since July 17th for having refused to work for the enemy. 

You will find below an extract from the letter giving me this sad news, 
which was brought to me by a young man who left M on July 29th : — 

" At the beginning of June the German police in M — (Nord) summoned all the former 
hands in the sawmills who were still there and ordered them to work. As they refused 
they were locked up in the Town Hall for two days. They set to work on the 3rd day, 
as they were told they were to saw planks to make huts for prisoners, and they worked 
for about a month. At the end of that time they were ordered to cut thick blocks ; they 
refused again, saying they would not work for the trenches. Seventeen of them were 
taken to S for 14 days and then removed to Germany on July 17th." 

I will give you some names : C , V— : — , B , E, , all from 

M (Nord), the rest are from F (Nord), M (Nord), and B 

(Belgium). 

These men worked before the war in the factory C , of which I was 

a director (steam sawmills). 

The work was done with the rough planks we had in the yard and the 
factory machinery " 



75 

The Contracting Powers will issue to their armed 
land forces, instructions which shall be in con- 
formity with the " Regulations respecting the Laws 
and Customs of War on Land" annexed to the 
present convention. {Hague Coiivc'ttion, Art. 1.) 

A belligerent party which violates the provisions 
of the said Regulations shall, if the case demands 
be liable to make compensation. It shall be resi)on- 
sible for all acts committed by persons forming 
part of its armed forces. {Ihkl. Art. 3.) 



AMEXE C. 

OFFICIAL FRENCH AND GERMAN DOCUMENTS. 



It seems necessary to draw the attention of the 
Neutral Powers to the text of certain French and 
German notes, relative to the work m mvaded 
territories. 

The view of the Imperial German Government 
is expressed in these official communications. 

These texts need no commentary. \ perusal 
of the previous pages will show the value of the 
statements contained in the following German 
communications 



76 



Annexe 242. 

Telegram. 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Ambassador at Berne. 

Paris, 22nd August, 1915. 

Please forward by telegram to the Spanish Embassy in Berlin the 
following communication, of which I am also forwarding a copy to the 
United States Embassy in Paris : — 

It appears from recent information that the German authorities are 
subjecting the population of the districts of France in their occupation to 
labour of the hardest description and to a discipline of the most wanton 
severity. From the deposition made on oath by a civilian prisoner, who 
has succeeded in leaving these districts, it is clear that at Landrecies, 
the inhabitants, even if they are ill, are compelled to work 
from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., and that all the food which they receive is a loaf 
of bread every three days, most inferior coffee in the morning, rice aud 
vegetable soup in the middle of the day, and in the evening coffee similar to 
that of the morning. The author of the deposition in question affirms that, 
after an attempt to escape, one of his companions was brutally beaten 
and kept five days in a cell with his hands tied behind his back ; that at 
Hancourt (Somme) eight others of his companions received, for the same 
offence, more than 200 strokes with a horsewhip, were kept without bread 
for two days, and were then sent to work under the supervision of German 
soldiers armed with sticks. 

The French Government would be grateful to the Spanish Ambassador 
at Berlin if he would request the Imperial Government to make inquiry 
into these facts and to communicate what steps they have taken to improve 
the situation of the inhabitants of the districts in their occupation, al 
.situation as contrary to the principles of humanity as to the rules of 
international law. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ventures to beg His Excellency 
M. Polo de Bernabe to be good enough to telegraph the date on which 
this communication is handed to the German Government. 

(Signed) Delcasse. 



Annexe 243. 

(This note, relating to the employment of French prisoners in Germany and of the 
inhabitants of the invaded districts on work connected with military operations, was 
<;ommunicatsd to the Neutral Powers. Only the part relating to civilian work in the 
invaded districts is here reproduced.) 

Extract from a Note by the French Government. 

Paris, August 31st, 1915. 

The employment of prisoners of war on military works constitutes a 
•clear and flagrant violation of international law. The violation is the 
jnore serious when the compulsion is imposed on civilians inhabiting 
invaded districts. In the terms of the regulation annexed to the Fourth 
Hague Convention (Article 52) : — 

Neither requisitions in kind nor services can be demanded from communes or inhabi- 
itants except for the necessities of the army of occupation. They must be in proportion 
;to the resources of the country, and of such a nature as not to imply for the population 
■any obligation to take part in military operations against their country. 



.77 

It appears from a letter from Tourcoing, dated the 12th of June, 
1915, that the Germans in that town assert the right to compel the 
inhabitants to make harrows in order to break the dash of the French 
cavalry and sacks which, when filled with earth, are used as shelter in 
the trenches. The Germans have the workmen seized in tbeir own 
homes by their military police. 

This practice is confirmed by more recent documents. It has extended 
to Lille and the whole district. The German authorities assert the right 
to compel the population to make sandbags for the trenches. 

An interchange of correspondence between the Governor and the 
Mayor of Lille, M. Ch. Delesalle, between June 10th and 21st, 1915, 
establishes the fact that the German authorities intended to make use of 
the Mayor's influence in order to force the workmen to work and pro- 
posed to impose on the city itself the duty of manufacturing sacks. An 
order of the Kommandant of the place, von Swerwis, posted at Marcq 
on the 2Tth of June, 1915, makes the following regulations for the 
manufacture of sacks: — " The Kommandantur will deposit in each house 
of the street designated the material, ready cut out, for the preparation 
of 10 sacks. The first distribution will take place on Monday at 7 a.m. 
(German time) and the sacks will be collected every day at the same hour. 
The first distributions began with the Rue de Lille until the new order. 
To make up for lost time, for the first two days 15 sacks will be dis- 
tributed per house." 

The following shows how the German authorities try to justify these 
measures. A proclamation by the Governor of Lille, dated June 30th, 
contains the following passage: "For some days the French workmen 
have refused to go on with the work which they had hitherto done for 
the German authorities. They were told by unscrupulous agents that 
their action was contrary to Article 52 of the Hague Convention. This 
idea is absolutely false : Article 52 says expressly that work for the army 
of occupation is allowed ' if it is of such a nature that it does not implicate 
the population in military operations against their country.' This is not 
the case with the work demanded." 

But it was, on the German authorities' own showing, a question of 
turning out of sandbags for the trenches. 

Here, again, is an extract from a communication from the Komman- 
dant of Halluin, Schranck, to the Municipal Council and leading men of 
the town : — 

" It is not for us to discuss on whose side is right, because we are 
not competent and shall never reach accord on the point. It will be 
the business of diplomats and representatives of the different States after 
the war. To-day, only the interpretation given by the German authorities 
is valid, and for that reason we demand that everything needed for the 
maintenance of our troops shall be produced by the workmen of the 
territories in our occupation. I can assure you that the German military 
authorities will, under no condition, waive their demands and their right, 
even if a town of 15,000 inhabitants has to be destroyed . . . Return 
to reason and see that all the workmen come back to work without delay ; 
otherwise you will expose your town, your family and your persons to the 
greatest misfortunes." 

(The order adds : " lliere is only one will and that is the will of the German Military 
Authorities^) 



78 

As regards ''the sanction," it consisted of: — 

(1) A certain number of sentences, exceeding in some cases two 
years' imprisonment, promulgated by the Military Tribunal at Roubaix, 
on June 25th, 1915, on persons convicted of " having been present at the 
destruction of the property of a family whose members were working 
for the Germans and for having tried to prevent them working by 
threats." On June 24th the bootmaker Jacoby was condemned to death 
" for having threatened with a weapon some French workmen who wished 
to work for the German authorities and for having tried to prevent them 
continuing their work." 

(2) In the arrest, effected on July 1st, 1915, of 130 French citizens of 
Roubaix, including the highest industrial and commercial notabilities, 
and their despatch to the prisoners' camp at Gustrow (Mecklenburg). 
This arrest en 'masse was effected partly on the pretext that these 
industrials refused to work and to employ their factories to supply the 
needs of the German Army. 

Finally there was a succession of vexatious measures. A proclama- 
tion of the Governor of Lille, dated June 30th, compels the inhabitants 
of the Communes of Lille and Hellemmes to stay in their houses from 
6 p.m. to 5 a.m. (German time). At Roubaix, on July 9th, a proclama- 
tion by the Kommandantur insists on the closing of all shops, 
restaurants, &c., in the towns of Roubaix, Croix, Hem, Lannoy, Lys, 
Soers, Mouvaux, Toufflers, Wasquehal, and Wattrelos, on the inhabitants 
staying in their houses between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., and announces new 
and stricter measures, especially the deportation of certain persons. 

As the attitude of the population remains the same in spite of these 
persecutions (there are still a considerable number of working women 
in prison who refuse to give way), acts of revolting brutality are com- 
mitted, especially in the villages. It is clear from private evidence that 
at Marcq especially some working women who refused to work were 
locked up, kept without food and sleep, and struck by their guards when 
they lay down or fell asleep. 

It appears sufficient to authenticate the definite, repeated, and 
systematic violation of Articles 6 and 52 of the Fourth Hague Convention, 
which forbid the employment of prisoners of war and of the inhabitants 
of invaded territory on works in connection with military operations. 
From the majority of the preceding proofs the violation of the texts which 
forbid the employment of prisoners of war on "excessive" labour becomes 
equally clear. The despatch of prisoners, often weakened by the 
fatigues of the campaign, by illness and privations, into mines, the 
employment of Russian prisoners during March, and of French prisoners 
during June, to reclaim marsh-lands, constitutes not only a definite 
violation of the Hague Convention, but a monstrous outrage on the rights 
of humanity. 



Annexe 244. 

NOTE VERB ALE OF THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT. 

January 24th, 1916. 

The French Government asserts that the civil population of the French 
territories in German occupation has been subjected to treatment 
contrary to international law and the duties of humanity. 

The Imperial Foreign Office, referring to its Note Verhale of 
November 30th, 1915 (III. b. 26418), concerning the situation of German 



79 

prisoners in the camp at Casabianda(^), has the honour to transmit the 
enclosed to the Ambassador of the United States of America, with the 
request that he will forward the answer of the German Military 
Authorities to the French Government. 

Re-ply of the German Military Authorities to the statements of the 
French Government concerning the alleged ill-treatment, contrary to 
international laiv and the duties of humanity, of which the civil popula- 
tion of the occupied French territory is said to have been a victim. 

The telegram of the French Government to the French Ambassador 
at Berne of August 22nd, 1915 (An7i. 242), transmitted to the 
German Government by the American Ambassador in Berlin, contains 
completely erroneous information concerning the treatment and feeding 
of French civilian workmen in the occupied territory. 

At Landrecies Frenchmen of military age are compelled to work in 
accordance with their professions. The work consists principally of 
fetching wood from the forests for heating purposes. The work lasts 
from 7 a.m. till 5 p.m., less 2 half-hours generally lost at the beginning 
and end of the day's work ; furthermore, pauses of an hour and a half to 
two hours are granted during the work. The amount of work demanded 
is less than that exacted fmm German workmen. At the hardest work, 
the transport of wood, each group of two men has to transport 2-5 cubic 
metres of firewood for about 500 metres every day. This only represents 
a burden of about 20 kilograms. 

The Commune of Landrecies is charged with the feeding of the work- 
men, at a payment of 1 fr. 50 per day per man. According to the report 
of M. Thomas, acting-mayor, who is in charge of the feeding, this sum 
is quite sufl&cient. 

The workmen receive daily about : — 

350 grammes of good quality meat. 

500-600 grammes of potatoes and turnips. 

120 grammes of dry vegetables. 

300 grammes of bread. 
15 grammes of coffee. 
30 grammes of sugar, &c. 
The municipality has employed the savings made on the feeding for the 
purchase of clothing and especially boots for the workers. The evidence 
on oath of the French mayor Thomas is at the disposal of the French 
Government. 

It is not true that sick persons were constrained to work. A workman 
who reports himself ill before the beginning of the day's work is 
examined by a doctor ; one who does so during the work is given a lighter 
task or sent home. It is true that workmen are punished for attempts 
to escape; they have not, however, been subjected to corporal punish- 
ment, but merely to imprisonment. One of them set fire to his mattress. 
With a view to his own protection as well as that of his companions, 
his hands were tied behind his back for one night. Besides the French- 
men of militarv age who are compelled to work under the aforesaid 
conditions, there are also 250 workmen at Landrecies who work at their 
own request; they receive 3 to 6 fr. a day and provide their own food. 

Some Frenchmen at Hancourt— and not at Haucourt whexe no French^ 
men have been constrained to work— were transferred to Landrecies m 
May, 1915. A searching enquiry has revealed nothing to lead us to 
suppose that up to that date workmen who had tried to escap e had been 

(1) The camp at Casabianda has been closed. 
9288 



80 

beaten and kept witliout bread, and that the soldiers on guard who acted 
as escort to the workmen were armed with sticks. 

The trustworthy French Government official (Geivdhrsmann) has, con- 
sequently made on oath false statements. It is superfluous to insist: 
AT Landrecies, Hancourt and everywhere else, the population of 
THE French territory in our occupation is treated in a just and 

WHOLLY humane MANNER. 



Annexe 245. 

The document of April 15th, 1915, mentioned below treats of the work of French 
civilians interned in Germany, a question which does not come under review in the 
present Note. Annexe 245 is reproduced here to show the opinion of the Ueimau 
Imperial Government, which the French Government shares, according to which no work 
ought to be imposed on civilian prisoners. This view must apply even more forcibly to 
free populations in territories in the occupation of the enemy. 

NOTE VERBALS OF THE GEEMAN GOYEENMENT. 

In reply to the Note Verbale of 25th January (French Affairs, No. 
1360), concerning the obligation to work imposed on civilians interned 
in France, the Imperial Department for Foreign Affairs has the honour 
to bring the following facts to the notice of the Spanish Embassy : — 

Up till now the German Government has had no knowledge of the full 
test of the Note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, addressed 
to the American Ambassador in Paris on 15th April, 1915. Otherwise, 
it would not have failed to give a detailed reply to this Note, a reply 
which would have contained the most formal protest against the wholly 
unjustifiable insinuations of the French Government. As a matter of 
fact the German Government on 23rd April last only received, through 
the American Embassy in this city, an extract of the French Note in the 
form of a telegram. If the French Government will take the trouble 
to read again the observations of the German Government of 8th June 
last, added to the Note Verbale of the Eoyal Embassy in Berlin of 12th 
June last (iii. b. 12770), it will see that the communication of the 
American Ambassador, based on the data of the French Note of 15th 
April, were dealt with in those observations under the third heading, 
in which the German Government explained in detail that, in face of 
certain affidavits and other proofs at its disposal, it felt obliged, in 
addition to a formal declaration on the subject, to request the French 
Government to issue strict orders to the commandants of internment 
camps in respect to the compulsory employment of the interned. 

The demand contained in the aforesaid observations of 8th June, and 
repeated in the Note Verbale of this department of 13th December last 
(iii. b. 33565), was entirely justified, and if there has been an error, the 
error existed solely on the French side. Further, while the German 
Government has not failed to communicate to the French Government 
on the proper occasions various affidavits by civilians who have returned 
from France, on which it based its demand, the French Government has 
confined itself to advancing' general allegations concerning the employ- 
ment of French civilians. 

The German Government sees with satisfaction that the French 
Government has now given a fresh formal assurance that German civilian 
prisoners in France are not compelled to work. At the same time it has 



81 

reason to doubt whether the orders of the French Government are every- 
where carried out. For example, according to the reports of the Swiss 
delegates of the International Eed Cross, the civilian prisoners from 
Medjouna in Morocco have been compelled to do hard and laborious work 
since the 1st of January. The German Government believes that it 
can hope that this measure does not correspond to the intentions of 
the French Government, and it hopes that the latter will open 
an immediate enquiry as to the manner in which its orders are carried 
out at Medjouna, and that the state of affairs in that camp will lead it 
also to examine the situation in other camps, which was the subject of 
the documentary observations of the German Government in its memo- 
randum of 8th June of last year {Note Verbale of this Department of 
12th June, III. (b), 12770), to which, however, the French Government 
does not appear, up till now, to have given attention. 

The German Government has no doubt that the French Government 
will again issue strict injunctions to all the Camp-Commandants, and it 
ventures to hope that fresh complaints of contraventions of these instruc- 
tions will not reach it either from Medjouna or other localities. If the 
German Government should find itself deceived in this expectation, it 
would have no option but to proceed to energetic measures of reprisal. 

Berlin, March 22nd, 1916. 

The documents, lettees, exteact.3, and teanslations annexed to this 
Note are certified copies of the originals peeserved in the 
Ministry of Foeeign Affairs. 

The Minister Plenipotentiary, 

Director of administration and technical 
affairs in the Foreign Office. 

Signed : FERNAND GAVARRY 



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